The Ballad of Spyro II: Second Life
by Jamester0091
Summary: James is an average young man; However, his life is turned upside-down when He wakes up as a dragon! He soon realizes someone is offing his human freinds from his time, As well as kidnap Spyro and his entire family. He takes it upon himself to save them.
1. The awakening

I woke with a start. "That was a weird dream." I said to myself. In the dream, I was in a white void as I slowly changed into a dragon.

I looked around the room and instantly realized something was off. "Where am I?" I said. I wasn't in my bedroom; instead, I was in a room with tan stone blocks making up the walls, ceiling and floor. There was a large window with no glass that was covered with a thick maroon curtain. I was lying on a large mattress on the floor. There was a desk and a bookshelf against a wall. Altogether, it wasn't bad but I had no clue where I was. I stood up to explore, but immediately fell on my face. I couldn't balance! I put my arms out to push myself up and instead of my arms; there were claws and silver scales!

Naturally this disturbed me. "AHHHHHHH!!!!!" There was a mirror above the desk. I made my way over to it, stumbling the whole way. When I got to it, I looked in the mirror. I was a friggin dragon! I was about 6 foot with bright silver scales with an almost mirror like quality to them, two swept back horns and 'fins' on the side of my face. My wing membranes were white and the blades on my wings resembled 12 inch daggers. I looked back at my body, I was long and slender, my tail ending in a long blade about 25 inches long. My talons were also white. My back was smooth with no crests or ridges. I was staring into the mirror, hyperventilating when the door opened. I got on all fours and turned around, There was another dragon. "AHHHHHHH!!!!!" I screamed. Again. I fell on my back and pushed myself backwards till I hit a corner.

"James, Are you Ok?" the dragon asked

"You-you #%&*$ talk!" I shouted.

The dragon stared at me. "This has got to be a dream." I said "A really bad… real dream."

"You're awake James." The dragon said again. For the first time, it clicked in my head, the body and facial features along with the voice, it was a girl!

"No way." I said, shaking my head. I pinched myself to wake myself up. When that didn't work, I scratched myself, leaving a bloody line on my arm.

"James! What are you doing?!" the dragoness asked, ass she made her way toward me.

"GET AWAY!" I yelled and swept at her with my tail, causing her to back up, a hurt look in her eyes. (That was weird,) I thought. (I've never had a tail before, how'd I know how to use it? Oh, it doesn't matter! I've got to wake up!) I stood up and ran as fast as I could toward the wall. Suddenly, there was a loud CRACK, a flash of light and a lot of pain before I passed out.

When I woke up, I looked around, the pain was gone and I was in a room with stainless steel walls. (Great, what now?) I sat up and looked at my arms. I was human again! "Yes!" I shouted I got off the hard bed I was on and looked around. There were a couple of steel tables with small doors lining the walls. "The hell?" I said and turned around and nearly puked. The bed I was on had another person on it with a white sheet pulled over their head. I slowly made my way over and reached down with trembling hands. This would be the first time I've ever seen a cadaver. Who was it? I slowly pulled the sheet back and stopped when I saw a bullet hole in the forehead. This time I did puke. I got back up and pulled the sheet away and came face to face with- myself?

"No." I said. Just then, a coroner came in. I ran over to him "Help me! Please!" He didn't answer or even so much as acknowledge me. "Tell me what's going on!" I shouted and reached to grab him by the sleeve, but my hand went right through him!

I backed away, finally realizing what happened. I went back to my body and looked at the tag.

Cranial trauma from gunshot .22 point blank

Bullet ricoched and destroyed much of brain,

Including memory lobe.

After I read that, I started to feel woozy and passed out again.

I woke up with blurry vision, as it slowly cleared, the first thing I saw was a beautiful face in front of me. Then she spoke "Are you Ok? I managed to heal your scratch and your horns. You broke them both! What were you thinking?! The rest of my family's here now." My vision cleared and I could se the face was the dragon from earlier. But now there were ten others! I sprang up and looked around, three were about my height, 5-6 feet. But the other seven were between 13 and 17 feet. The smaller ones were black, yellow and red. While the larger ones were green, yellow, blue, white, red, black and… purple? Wait… I recognize these dragons! I turned to the first dragon I met who was pink. "se-Selena?"

"Yes James?" She asked.

I cursed, loudly.

Terrador spoke next with a deep voice. "James! You know you're not allowed to use that kind of language!"

"I-I'm dead?" I said quietly.

"What are you talking about?" Selena said "What has gotten into you?"

"I've gotta go." I said.

"Oh, no you don't." Cyril said. "Your not going anywhere till we figure out whats going on."

I tried to get to the door, but Spyro blocked my path. "Get out of my way." I said. "I don't want to hurt you." Suddenly, I turned and dashed for the window. Fever got in my way, but using a move I perfected as a human, I fell to the ground, swept the ground with my leg, tripping him then leapt over him and out the window. As I spread my wings, I realized two important things.

1. I was three stories up.

2. I had no idea how to fly.

I moved my wings frantically, but couldn't get the rhythmic flapping required for flight and plummeted the three stories to the hard ground. I hit. Hard. Barely conscious, I looked up at the sunset with the twin moons rising. The young dragons flew out the window and dove to get to me and I could tell the adults would be making their way here shortly, so I got up and tried running. I just wanted to be alone! I took one step and felt excruciating pain, one of my legs were broken. I hobbled toward the streets of the city with the dragons close on my tail. I almost made it to the temple gate before Zoulu pinned me and used the notch in her tail blade to pin my tail to the ground. Suddenly, I felt as if my body wasn't my own anymore and Zoulu got off. My body stood without my command and I saw Spyder looking at me, her eyes glowing white.

After the rest of the dragons had caught up, the interrogation began.

"Why did you run just now?" asked Terrador.

"I just wanted to be alone." I replied.

"Well you could have just asked you know." Cyril said.

"Why have you been acting so weird today?" Selena asked.

I stared at her for a moment, "How do you know me?" I said.

"What?" she said, confusion on her face. "We've known each other for years!"

Now it was my turn to be confused. "But I've only been here an hour! When did we meet?"

"Five years ago, right after Mom and Dads wedding, don't you remember?"

I stared at all of them bewildered. "But, I only wrote that eleven days ago!" I said. "%&$ I'll never get to finish real 5ds or the sequel to The Ballad of Spyro."

Now they looked at me like I was completely insane. "What are you talking about?" Selena asked.

"Just leave me alone." I said. "I don't want to talk about it."

"But you're talking nonsense!" Cynder said.

"No I'm not! You wouldn't understand! I'm not a dragon! I'm a human!"

All of them took a step back. "What? When were you ever a human?"

"Until I woke up this morning!" I started struggling against the shadows holding me, but quickly wore myself out.

"I've heard of creatures transforming before." Volteer said. "But how did you change from a human to a dragon and where did you come from?"

"I said I don't want to talk about it!" I shouted "Now leave, me, ALONE!!!" Suddenly, there was a flash of white light and I could control my body again. I opened my wings and tried flapping, this time it worked and I rose a couple of inches. Everyone was still blinded by the flash so I jumped as hard as I could on three legs and took off. Almost crashing a few times but I quickly got the hang of it and even figured out how to turn; all those hours in physics class finally paying off. I headed towards the nearby forest and landed near a pond. I hobbled over and tried figuring out how dragons drink. I eventually gave up and dove in, drinking underwater. When I got out, I just lay there and cried.

After a while, I heard a noise behind me, I turned and saw Selena alone walking up to me. There was a basket floating next to her. "Here." She said "I brought some food. You must be hungry." The basket floated over to me and I could smell warm meat coming from it. My stomach growled loudly, but I ignored it and laid back down. Selena walked over and sat next to me. "James, whether you remember it or not, we've been friends for five years. Now please, tell me what's going on. I'm worried for you." I looked up at her and saw her face had concern and… something else on it. I sighed and stood up and walked over to the waters edge to stare at my new face.

"You want the truth Selena? I'll tell you the truth. I'm a human. If this is the reality I think it is, I'm from the distant past. The year 2010 in human years. Before Armageddon. How long before I have no idea. I was a lonely person; unpopular in school, the 'Nerd'. Even other unpopular kids would avoid me. All I had were my books, games and cards. Recently I started writing stories. My favorite was based of a game called 'The Legend of Spyro'. I don't remember anything of what happened recently or even where my memory stops. What I do know is when I hit my head earlier and passed out, I was back in the past and saw…" I chocked and stopped.

"What did you see James?" Selena asked.

"I saw me, but I was-I…"

"You were what?"

"I WAS DEAD!" I shouted as I hit the water , causing us both to get wet.

I looked back to Selena, Who was looking at me with horror. "James, I'm- I'm so sorry! Are you Ok?"

I looked back to the water and saw my reflection distorted by the ripples, the result looking like how I felt inside. "I'm dead, of course I'm not ok!"

Selena came up to me and hit my broken leg. I cursed. "Selena! Why'd you do that?"

"To prove a point. If your dead, how could you have a broken leg?" I looked at her, trying to figure out the true meaning behind her words. "James, you may have died as a human, but your alive now. You probably had friends and family then, but you have them here too, you just have to… I don't know, re-meet them. Now let me fix that arm." With that, she breathed pink mist on my arm and I felt the bone snap painlessly back into place and heal. When She was done, She looked back up at me. "Are you Ok now?" she asked.

"Yeah." I said

"Good, just one more thing." She said as she raised her arms and a glowing wave rose from the pond drenched me. "That's for getting me wet. Now lets go back. We've got a lot to explain to the others."


	2. getting used to it

Me and Selena went back to the temple and explained everything to the others. My strange behavior, my amnesia, how I was a human before… before whatever happened happened and how I 'wrote' this world. Trying to explain this made me feel a bit like Atrus from the 'Myst' series. There faces went from confusion, to shock, to pity and finally to what I guessed was understanding. After we were finished, I asked to be exused to my room, which I was finally granted. I made my way inside the temple and got lost before I had taken two steps. I turned back to Selena, "Umm… could you show me around?"

"Sure!" Selena piped as she took the lead. First she showed me around the first floor, first to the bathrooms, then the Kitchen and dining area. As we made our way to the stairs, I noticed a staircase going down. "Hey Selena, where does that lead?"

"That goes to the guardians' rooms and the Pool of visions. Only the guardians, Spyro, and invited dragons are allowed in there."

With that, we made our way to the second floor, where the training rooms, armory and class rooms were located. "Classrooms?!" I objected I've graduated from high school! I don't have to go back, do I?) I asked Selena about this.

"Well, you're not of age yet, so yeah, you do. But It'll help you learn more about dragon culture and traditions, you know, stuff you have to know but you have no idea about."

I begrudgingly admitted she was right and submitted myself to yet MORE school.

Next she showed me to the third and fourth floors, which were the private rooms. It turned out that every dragon in Warfang came to live here when they turned ten and stayed for ten years unless they were orphans, in which case they had permanent residence until they got a place in the city. Selena showed me to my room; it was on the fourth floor right next to the door leading to the roof.

I entered my room and looked around. The desk was bare except for a few objects I didn't recognize. I looked at my paw and for the first time I realized I had thumbs! Not realizing this before made me feel extremely stupid. But anyway I opened the first drawer and saw something that took my breath away.

A ring.

"No way." I picked it up and looked it over, it was a shade between silver and gunmetal. It was very plain except for a ridge on either side of the ring. I looked on the inside and sure enough, the word 'titanium' was engraved on it. I couldn't believe it! My wedding ring! How did it get here? I didn't want to get it scratched up on the ground by wearing it so for now I put it on top of my desk and continued looking through the desk.

The next drawer held a book. When I opened it again I was surprised when I found it held hundreds of family pictures. After glancing through it, I put it back and continued my search. The next drawer had my MP3 player with a rechargeable battery. (Maybe I could get Zoulu to charge this up every once in a while.) The next drawer had various writing and art supplies. I opened the last drawer to reveal a familiar metal case. I took it out and opened it to reveal my eight Yu-Gi-Oh decks. (That's right, I went there.)

Putting everything except the ring back, I made my way over to the bookcase and saw it had every book I had as a human. (How on earth does all this get here?!) I guess I would have to ask the guardians. I saw a couple of books I didn't recognize. The first one was titled The Ballad of Spyro and other stories by: James Bates. I smiled. This world sure had some strange rules. The other book was a portfolio of every piece of art I ever made since I was old enough to hold a crayon in chronological order.

Making my way back to my bed and wondering about where al these things came from, I noticed a closet. I made my over and opened it, It was mostly formal robes made for dragons but I noticed something small in the corner. I pulled it out. It was a long package about 21 inches long wrapped in a large white bundle. I unwrapped it to reveal the cloth to be a traditional kimono and the object inside to be the tanto my wife gave me for my birthday. I picked the ancient samurai weapon up by the beautiful black and red sheath and drew the blade. Bright carbon steel with a diamond edged blade, this was truly the pinnacle of modern replicas. I found I could grip the weapon with no difficulty and, after cutting a robe apart, I made a nice belt that would allow me to draw the blade either normally or backhand comfortably if I ever got the hang of walking on my hind legs again. I decided to practice just that.

Walking out onto the roof, I pushed off with my forelegs and tried balancing. Easier said than done. I used my tail as counterbalance while flapping my wings if I stated to fall forward. I eventually got it and could stand without my tail for balance. Then I decided to try walking. I lifted one foot and fell on my face. I heard laughing behind me and turned to see Selena watching me.

"How long have you been there?" I asked her.

"Long enough to be impressed." She replied. You know, most dragons never get the hang of standing.

I got back up (on four legs this time) and walked to her. "Let me see your paws." I said.

"Wait, what?" She asked, blushing.

"I want to see if our paws look the same."

She held up her paw. It was very much shaped like a reptile claw crossed with a feline paw. I held up mine for her to see. Mine was much more human. My claws were half as long as hers and I had short fingers instead of toes. Then there were the thumbs.

"Wow," she said "You ARE different."

"Can you help me with something?" I asked her.

"What do you need? She asked.

"I know you're good at magic; can you grow an object, and then shrink it again?"

"I don't know. I've never tried, it sound simple enough though."

We made our way to my room. Five minutes later, I was wearing my wedding ring on my tail just in front of my tail.

"It's pretty." Selena said. "Who gave it to you?"

"It's my wedding ring." I said. Here, let me show you a picture of Perrin.

I went to get the picture book, but when I turned around, Selena was gone. I went out to the hall and saw a flash of pink running down the stairs. I ran after her, discovering I was quite agile. I got to the ground floor and saw her running out the main gate and taking off. (Crud, I'm not good at flying yet.) I thought as I took off and tried my best to catch up, surprising myself when I started to outpace her. I noticed her flying was erratic. (That's it.) I thought. (She's not flying at her top speed.) I quickly caught up to her.

"Selena? What's wrong?"

"She looked over at me, startled. Then vanished with a whistle sound. In the second I had a look at her face, I could see she was crying. I started looking around, knowing she can't teleport long distances. I did give her the power, after all and saw her heading toward the forest.

I followed her and saw she had landed in the same clearing we were in earlier. I circled over head for a minute, thinking about the dry humor in the reversed roles. Then I made my way down. As I touched down, I could hear Selena sobbing. I sat next to her. "Selena, what's wrong? You can tell me. You did say we were friends."

Selena looked up at me, then back to the water and started crying harder.

(Jeez I suck at this.) I thought. "Selena, Is it something I did? Something I said?"

"N-no." She said "I-it's not yo-you. It's me!"

I draped my wing over her and tried to give her comfort. "It's Ok. You can tell me anything. I probably know you better than anyone else. We're friends remember?"

"But I don't want to be friends!" She wailed.

I was shocked. "Wait, what?"

Selena looked up at me. "For five years we've been friends, and I was fine with it, but ever since today, when you… I don't know, reincarnated, I wanted more than I could bear to be more than JUST friends."

I just stared at her, feeling pity, surprise and sadness that I was the cause of her sorrow.

She continued. "I was afraid about how you'd feel, so I was going to wait for the right moment to ask you out. But then it turns out your married!"

"Selena…" I just lay there with her, not knowing what to do. I wanted to alleviate Selenas pain somehow, but I was madly in love with Perrin and knew with all my heart that even though I would never se her again, even in the next life I would never love anyone else. My heart was Perrins and Perrins alone. But I had to do something!

"Selena, I'm sorry, I didn't know you had these feelings, but I love Perrin. I don't know if there's anything I can do, but we can still be friends, right? Because I may not like you like that, but I do like you as a friend."

Selena again looked up at me, and smiled. "Sure James. Can we go back now?"

"Sure, but on the way, could you teach me how to fly better? I kinda suck right now."

Selena laughed. "I could, but fevers the real stunt flier, you should ask him. And have Zoulu teach you about breath attacks too!"

"Ok, but what about magic? You could teach me about that, right?"

"Sure, lets go home first, I'm starved!"

After we got back, we went to the kitchen and started gathering eggs, cheese and meat.

"What are you making?" Selena asked.

"An omelet, want one?"

"Never heard of that."

(Wow) I thought. I was going to have to teach the dragons about human things the way they were going to teach me to be a dragon.

Selena watched with interest as I made the omelets. Then we made our way to a table and stated eating. I should never made her an omelet, she liked it so much I had to make three more! After dinner, she took me to a training room. It resembled a school gym, with bleachers on either side. There were panels in the wall and two lines on the floor that I guessed were starting positions. Me and Selena each took our places.

"Ok. First, tell me everything you know about magic." Selena said.

"Well I know about mana and how to focus it. I trained my energy control as a human to improve mental and physical endurance. I also know the concept of spellcasting though I have no idea how to actually do it."

"Ok, " Selena started "There are Spells that have been recorded and are known as 'standard' spells. These will be taught to you in school if you have any talent in magic. There are also countless things you can do with magic that no one has ever thought of before. The danger in this is the result may not be what you had in mind. And lastly, If you don't have enough mana to perform a spell, it won't work which can be very dangerous in a battle situation when every second counts; so know your limits. You still with me?"

"Yeah." I said "Let me try something." I focused my mana and internalized it. Then I focused all my willpower on the space behind Selena. When that didn't work, I imagined a conduit between myself and the space I was focusing on. I heard a whistle and when I opened my eyes, I was behind Selena. I smirked at Selenas face of surprise. "How's that?" I asked.

"Good job." She said. "I'm surprised you figured it out. I invented that one and never told anyone how I do it." Then her face lit up. "Hey, why don't you try making your own spell instead of copying me?"

"Ok. I'll try. Hey! How do the hand signs work in magic?"

"Well, If your new to a spell and don't know how to visualize it, you can use hand signs to shape the spell. The danger in this is your opponent knows what your going to do and can counter. The other use is if there IS no way to visualize the spell."

Ok, thanks." I said. "Can you bring out a target?" Selena pressed a button on the wall and one of the panels flipped to reveal a set of dummies.

"Which do you want?" she asked "Straw, clay, wood, stone, metal, or… never mind."

"What?"

"We have another, but no ones ever beaten it. We don't know what the ancients forged it from, but no attack can penetrate and it's ruthless, dragons have died against it."

I chose the straw dummy to see how these things worked and had Selena set it to the maximum difficulty. The doll levitated and rushed me, a wooden club in its hand. I easily dodged it and slashed at it with my wing blade, it easily tore through the tough leather hide and left it trailing straw all over. I then decided to try something. I remembered how I described the mechanics of breath attacks when writing The Ballad of Spyro and focused my mana through my mouth, the result was a ball of white energy flying through my mouth and hitting the doll with a small explosion. I looked at Selena who was covered in straw and frowning. All I could do is grin sheepishly.

"Your supposed to be practicing magic, not breath attacks!" she yelled at me.

"I know, but I needed to know how to project mana and how my element works for the spell I want to try, Ok?"

Selena just programmed the next dummy, the clay one. "No not that one." I said.

"Which one then?" She asked.

I grinned. "The big one"

"James no! It'll kill you!"

"Not if what I have in mind works." I told her. Then I started reviewing the steps I saw in the anime. Selena programmed the Dummy. As it came out, I had second thoughts. It was huge! The size of a Tyrannosaur and wielded a war hammer. It was made of a bright silver metal that I though I had seen before.

Before I was ready, the doll lunged toward me and I took to the air. (That thing can't be that fast!) I thought, but was proved wrong when it swung its hammer through the air, barely missing me. I could feel the wind! I backed in to corner to get as much flying distance between it and me. I then focused my mana and performed a series of hand signs: Snake, Dragon, horse, Ram, Bird, Dog, Ox, Rabbit and monkey. Then I focused all the mana I could into my right hand and stabilized it with my left. The result was a ball off lightning forming in my hand letting off a very distinctive chittering sound. Then I flew as fast as I could at the thing, I somehow spiraled around his attack and closed on it's chest. I thrust my hand out while shouting "CHIDORI!!!!" My hand sunk right through the 'impenetrable' metal, causing the doll to lose control of its body. As I withdrew my hand, It fell to it's knees and I drew my tanto. I focused my mana again, this time channeling it into my blade. I put my two front fingers on the blade and guided the mana through he blade, causing it to glow white, I continued even after the tip, producing an energy blade three feet long. I then energized my tail blade in a similar way and rushed the doll, I struck with my tanto first, cleaving through half it's neck, then as I passed t, I flared my wings and 180'd swinging my tail at the same time.

The head fell to the ground and rolled to a stop in front of Selena, who was staring at me in shock. Spyro and the other adults came in just then to see what the noise was and saw me hovering above the wrecked dummy, putting my blade back in it's sheath. As I landed the elders started yelling at me, How reckless I was taking this thing on, but more importantly, It had been here since the temples construction and I destroyed it!

"I'll fix this!" I said.

"How?! How do you plan on fixing this?" Volteer asked. We've tried every possible way to defeat this dummy, with the exception of what you did, it's indestructible! You cant fuse it back together because we cant get a fire hot enough!"

"Well You've been going about it wrong." I told them. This metal happens to be called Adamantine. The only way to melt the metal is through divine means or radiation from nuclear fusion. Since I doubt god would worry about a training dummy, We'll have to fuse it." Then the problem occurred to me, I was short on nuclear reactors at the moment. Then a thought occurred. "CHAOS!" I shouted, surprising everyone. I quickly explained my plan to everyone and we got to work.

A few minutes later, Selena had the head hovering in place while Spyro, Cynder and myself were in position. "Ready?" I asked. They both nodded. Alright then, let it rip! I took what I did to the straw dummy and took it a step further, creating a constant stream of light, causing the metal to glow. Cynder came in next, hitting the same place with shadow flames. The shadow cooled the metal, but reacted with the light energy to create an energy surge stronger than anything I had imagined. Then Spyro came in and hit our combination of light and shadow with a stream of convexity, the purple beam of twisted time and space reacting with the chaos energy we had created. The sheer amount of energy fused the metal together and we worked our way around the neck, welding it together, then we did the same to the hole in its chest.

When we had finished, the dummy stood up and returned to its standby position. I on the other hand felt weak from expending so much energy.

"I'm tired, can I go to bed now?" I asked

"You're tired?" Cynder said before laughing, "That hardly took anything out of me!"

"Yeah? Well your older than me AND took out Malefor! Of course your gonna be stronger than me!"

"That's not it James." Selena said. "I was holding that hulking head up that entire time and I'm fine too."

"Well maybe I just need to train my mana or something." I said as I walked out. As I left I said "See you tomorrow!" but Volteer responded with something I did NOT want to hear.

"Alright, just don't be late for class!"


	3. The Dream

I made my way to my room and got ready for bed. I put my tanto beside the bed and got my MP3 player. I turned it on and tried for half an hour to get comfortable, It turns out dragon bodies are more suited to different sleeping positions. I settled for a position my cat slept in, on my side in a crescent position. After listening to random songs for a few minutes, I took the earphones out and quickly fell asleep.

I woke up later that night and couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to go for a walk. I got up and instantly realized something was different. For one my butt was way up in the air. Then I realized I was in my old room! I looked at myself, I was human! I stood up and walked over to the door; I reached for the doorknob and was relived when my hand didn't go through it. I wasn't dead! "I guess it was all a dream." I said.

I went to the living room and started watching late night TV. It was in the middle of my favorite show that I heard a gunshot. I stood up, ran to the kitchen, grabbed the 11 inch serrated bread knife, and got the 12-inch meat knife for my offhand, then I made my way down the hallway. I stopped outside my sisters room, There was a man in the dark holding a shotgun. I just stared in shock as he tuned and looked at me. I rushed at him and slashed with the knives, but he vanished in a flash of dark light. I don't even know how that works!

I turned and looked at the bed, but when my back was turned, everything on Jacy's bed had vanished and was replaced with a body under a white sheet. I pulled the sheet back and dropped the knives. There was a manikin under the sheet with words carved into its face: IT IS YOUR DUTY

I woke up yelling. When I had calmed down, I looked around, I was in the dragon temple again. I looked myself over and confirmed I was dragon. "These dreams just get weirder and weirder."

It was well before sunrise but I didn't feel like sleeping, so I practiced standing again. I could now stand without a problem, so I practiced walking. After an hour or so, I got the hang of it and could do so without looking silly. So I went outside and walked around on the roof. As the hours passed, I had almost mastered two-legged movement again. I remembered what Volteer told me and went back to my room.

When I opened my door, I was surprised to find fever in my room, looking through my photos! I snuck up on him and got on two legs, then tapped him on the shoulder, He jumped and turned around to come face to waist with my 12 foot frame. He looked up at me and grinned.

"What are you doing in my room, looking through my stuff?" I asked firmly.

"I uh… I was told by my dad to come help you get ready for your first day of school." He said.

"But that doesn't explain why your going through my stuff."

"I wanted to know more about you." He said "Who's that?"

I got down on all fours and looked at the photo in question. "That's my wife, Perrin."

"She's beautiful" Fever said. "Is the baby with her yours?"

"Yeah, her name is Laura. I loved them more than anything, and now I'll never see them again, not even in the next life. Or I hope I never see them in this life." I said, thinking of the strange dream about my sister.

"What was that?" Fever asked.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Just thinking out loud."

"Who are these people?" Fever asked.

"My family, My parents, and sister, Jacy."

"Wait, did you just say 'Jacy'?" Fever suddenly said, sounding alarmed.

"Yeah, do you know that name?"

"Uh… it's just a coincidence."

I stared at him,, waiting for him to say more but he didn't. I finally gave up and we went to the classrooms together. We entered the hallway and for the first time, I could see just how many young dragons lived here. It was like the population of a small city. I got many looks being the dragon who went schizo the other day. I also noticed looks in my direction from the female dragons before I realized they were mostly directed toward Fever. I don't know much about dragon standards, but guessed he was the Jacob Black of dragons.

School in the dragon realms is very similar to school in our world. First period is Academics. (Reading, writing, arithmetic.) Second period is physics. I excelled at these two, considering I already went to school. Third period was history. I was eager in this class as it was a chance to learn more about my new home. Before fourth period, I was put under a short test to see if I had any talent in magic. My skills were under the category "Low-Minimal" so I got out of Magic class along with most of the other dragons. Fourth period was Flight class, you'd be surprised how many dragons, myself included suck at flying. Fifth period was athletics. Once again Fever was swarmed by females. Sixth period was combat training, I took this class very seriously whereas Fever just seemed to loaf around. I asked him about this

"Fever, Why aren't you taking this as seriously as your other classes?"

He looked at me, "I don't need to. Me and Spyder have a fighting style that can't be taught or copied by anyone, we seem to move in synch and balance each other. The teachers know that even though I don't train much, when me and Spyder tag up, were nearly unbeatable."

I accepted what he said and decided to train with Zoulu, bad choice, I had bruises for a week.

The last period of the day was my favorite, Element class. The instructor, Cyril told me he had never heard of an element like mine, so I would have a custom training routine. So until they figured out how to train me, I would simply practice on my own. I soon discovered my element had different intensities, I could range my attacks from anything from an explosive blast to a harmless source of light in my hand. After seeing the latter technique, Cyril decide to aptly name my element "light".

After class, I went to Selenas room. I knocked on the door and heard noise inside "Who is it?" she asked

"It's James."

"Don't come in yet!" she yelled hastily.

I wondered what she was doing. "Actually, I was hoping you could take me to the library."

"Oh! Yeah, sure I'll be right out!"

The door opened and immediately I was blind. "The heck?!"

I heard the door close again and my vision returned. "Sorry." Selena said "My rooms a mess and I didn't want you seeing it."

"Ohhh kay… I really don't care, I'll bet as a human my room was way messier than yours." We both laughed at that and went to the library.

When we got there Selena turned to leave. "Selena, wait! I actually need your help in here."

"With what?" She asked.

"Well, I didn't make it into magic class but I want to see about learning a spell."

"What kind of spell?" She asked.

"Transformation."

We entered the library. I had never seen such a place in my life. The shelves were crammed with books, scrolls, stone tablets, dioramas, anything and everything that could be used to pass on information. They went on seemingly forever and the shelves reached to the ceiling which towered above us. The shelves were a rich brown, the floors were a honey colored stone tile and the ceiling was shrouded in shadow. There were lamps evenly spaced along the aisles that held a glowing orb instead of a flame, the light given off gave the entire chamber a golden cast to it. There were several dragons and moles milling about. Even a few cheetahs. From what Selena told me, what few apes had survived Malefors curse had begged for redemption and were now allied with the dragons. I saw a few of these creatures walking the halls as we searched the aisles.

Eventually a mole wearing a long robe walked up to us. "Can I help you find anything?"

"Yes." I said. "Were looking for a spellbook."

"We have plenty of those." The mole replied. "right this way."

As he led us down the halls, he talked to us over his shoulder. "I've never seen you before, so I'll tell you the rules. You cannot take anything out of the library, If you take something off the shelf, put it back where you found it when your done, and since your reading spellbooks, I will supervise you. You can study all you want, but there will be no spellcasting in the library. Am I understood?"

"Yes." We both said.

We soon came to a room filled with arcane objects. It looked like a witches house. There were spellbooks, crystal balls, models, jars with who knows what and countless other things. "Is there anything in particular you needed?" the mole asked.

I turned to him and explained how I wanted to find a transformation spell.

"Well, there are a couple of methods, do you want an illusion spell or a physical morph?"

"I want whatever is easier to learn, I'm not very good at magic.'

"Alright" The mole led us to a shelf that held several scrolls. He looked at the seals on the ends, trying to find the right one.

They were in another language, but it looked oddly familiar. I suddenly realized what language it was and pulled a scroll of the shelf that said "self illusion" The mole looked at me in shock. "How did you know that was it? Owossic has been dead for millennia! Only a handful of people can read it!"

"It's a long story." I told him "But basically I invented this language."

The mole looked at me with an expression I was starting to get used to and I went to the table and opened the scroll. There were a few diagrams, but nothing that would help with what I wanted to do. So I turned to the text. It was indeed the language I invented in 9th grade and refined throughout high school. It was much more flashy than my original language consisting of straight lines, but I could read it with some difficulty. This world was getting stranger and stranger. After seeing Owossic, I wouldn't at all be surprised to find out the last president of the US before Armageddon was a hamster.

After a few hours, I finally thought I got what I wanted. I stood up, surprising Selena who had fallen asleep. "Sorry, I thought I could use your help studying, but since you couldn't read it I guess I wasted your time"

"It's ok James. I at least got to spend time with you."

I stopped what I was doing and looked back at her. "Uh… Selena? You do remember I don't want a relationship, right?"

"Yeah, but I can always wish right?"

We finished at the library and went out to a training room so I could try the spell. Selena transferred some extra mana to me so I wouldn't be in danger of overdoing it. When I was ready I concentrated on the steps required and after a little trial and error, there was a flash of light. When the light dimmed, Selena was staring at me in horror.

"What?" I asked.

"Did you mean to turn into that- that THING?!" she asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked again.

Selena performed a spell that turned a part of the wall to a mirror. I looked at myself and nearly jumped out of my skin. Apparently, my concentration wasn't hard enough as I had turned into a certain indestructible black alien from the movies. "Oops."

I cut the flow of mana and reverted to my normal form. I tried again; Once again, there was a flash of light. When it cleared I looked at myself and was pleased to see this time I had at least gotten to human. However, the body I was in appeared to be a jumble of random features, as I didn't recognize the person at all. After a few more tries I could become myself, but I had trouble getting the age right. After a while, I ran out of mana and decided to call it quits.

Me and Selena were going back to her room when I had an idea. "Hey Selena! Let's get your brother and sister, I want to show you guys something."

We found Zoulu in a training room, no surprise there. After getting her, we searched for Fever. He was just as easy to find. He was with Spyder in his room.

We all went up to my room and I got out the book that had The Ballad of Spyro in it. I let them read a few chapters of the short story before we decided to go to bed. After they had left, I put the book back and climbed into the bed and though about today and everything that had happened since I arrived here. I wondered if I could ever go back and fell asleep thinking about Perrin.


	4. The Vansihing

The next morning I woke up, relived to not have another creepy dream, It was a little before school started, So I practiced some Hung-Gar forms, a martial art that inspired earthbending in Avatar and is surprisingly suited to a dragon capable of standing. After My legs grew tired from the low stances, I practiced transformation again, this time I managed to get it right! I could return to my own body! "Yes!" I shouted. There was just one problem, I could transform to a new form, but I couldn't make clothes appear out of thin air.

I went to my closet and looked through the robes in it, not finding anything that could fit a human. Then I remembered the kimono my tanto was wrapped in. I got it out and put it on, it was a bit long for my tastes, but it would work fine. I got my tanto and went out to train for a few minutes.

At the training room I soon discovered while I was in my body, I retained the strength, stamina and agility of my dragon body. I was capable of jumping about six feet in the air and could cut through a solid iron dummy. After about half an hour though, I felt my mana dangerously low. Apparently it was a constant drain on my mana to keep my human form. "Darn." I said, I had hoped that I could have my old body back, but I guess not. So I begrudgingly dropped the spell and returned to my new true form.

The kimono and tanto vanished with the spell, I panicked and transformed again, when the light faded, I was again in the kimono and tanto. Apparently anything I wore became part of the spell. I returned to dragon form and went to class.

The day was mostly uneventful until element training. Cyril walked up to me. "Young dragon, come here."

"Yeah?"

"We have decided how best to train your… unique element. There is only one other dragon who has this 'Light' ability, Therefore I would like to introduce you to your new teacher."

I looked past him and dropped my jaw as Spyro walked up. "Alright, Let's get started, shall we?"

Me and Spyro were in a room I've never seen before, It was empty and the walls were completely black and featureless.

Spyro saw my confusion and explained. "This room is made of Voidstone. It absorbs everything mana based that comes in contact with it, It's meant for spell experimenting, but is also used for shaping particularly unstable elements. In this case, we don't know what your capable of, so It's best to train in here till we know what your limits are."

I nodded my understanding and looked Spyro over, this was the first tie I've actually looked at him since coming to the dragon realms, It seemed that in the space between my story and the present Spyro had completely matured. His horns and crests were longer; his wing spikes were curved more and much sharper. He also had short gold crystal-like growths on his elbows and knees his face had a much harsher look to it but retained the kind and gentle expression of his childhood.

"Ok." Spyro said "Show me what you've got, don't worry about my safety."

I grinned, "You asked for it." I opened my mouth and shot a beam of light energy that was easily blocked by Spyros wings, with his vision blocked, he couldn't see at I took flight and strafed him, just as he put his wings down I let loose another chunk of mana, this time segmenting it resulting in several balls of energy that exploded on impact. Spyro had just enough time to raise his wings again, but the explosions were taking their toll. This time I rushed him and energized my tail blade, just as I was about to put it to his throat, he opened his wings and I was pushed back by a huge gust of wind, I slammed hard into the wall and when my tail blade made contact with the wall, the energy in it was instantly leached. Before I could react, Spyro was in front of me, his tail spike at my throat. "Nice try" he said "But it'll take more than that to beat a purple dragon."

Round two. "Aright, how bout this?" I said and prepared my chidori. Before I could even finish the hand signs though, I was knocked off my feet by an earth missile.

Spyro laughed "You really think I'll let you complete a spell if you practically let me know your attacking me? Using a spell like that requires the opponent be distracted or stunned."

I got up, angry. I had an Idea. I teleported behind Spyro, causing a whistle sound as I vanished and reappeared. But the instant I appeared I teleported again, doing this three more times, resulting in multiple whistles and not letting Spyro know which direction I was really in, he took the bait and turned to the last whistle. Then I dove from above. Unfortunately, the second he saw I wasn't there, he flared his wings and a pulse of electricity emitted from his body in a huge dome, stunning me. I fell in a heap to the floor before Spyro, arcs of electricity coursing over my body, which twitched occasionally.

"God job" Spyro said "That would have worked against most dragons. Although I've been in enough fights to know a bluff when I see one. And don't even try that on a cheetah, their hearing is fine enough they'll hear you coming and put an arrow in your chest before you know what hit you."

Now it was time for Spyro to show the 'noob' how it was done. He breathed deeply a couple of times, then opened his eyes which glowed white. He then took on a white aura. "I'm sure you're aware of my dark form when I lose control. This is it's opposite, which I first discovered when battling Belial. I call it my 'Transcended' form.

Then he opened his mouth and a beam of energy shot out. It was so powerful and fast it was running into itself from behind, causing it to ripple and emit shockwaves that almost knocked me over. When it hit the wall, the voidstone tried to absorb it, but the energy was to much and it overflowed back into the room, appearing as if the beam splashed on impact. I was completely overwhelmed by the force of the energy, not only the sight of it, but there was a physical effect of just being this close. It felt like an impending sense that I would be crushed if I stayed there. Finally Spyro stopped the beam and returned to his normal form. "When you can do that, You will have mastered light."

The weeks passed without much happening. I taught Spyros children and a few other friends I had gained how to play Yu-Gi-Oh, with Selena, Fever and Zoulus help, we took scrap metal and wood and built a speaker. I plugged my MP3 player in and soon the entire population of the dragon temple were fans of human music. I was getting good at flying and standing combat. I even gave Spyro a run for his money in hand-to-hand, of course I still couldn't beat him.

One day I was woken up by a sound I've never heard before, It was some kind of alarm. I got up quickly and ran out to se what was going on. When I got out, the hall was crammed with dragons making their way downstairs, naturally I followed. We got to the main hall on the ground floor where the guardians were gathered with Spyro and Cynder, (Are they crying?) I thought. They were huddled next to each other, I couldn't see their faces very well.

Cyril was the first to speak "We have called everyone here for an announcement of critical importance, two dragons have gone missing. Selena ad Zoulu."

Terrador spoke next, "This disturbs us for more than one reason, first and foremost, They were last seen in the gardens, when we went to search for them we found signs of a struggle. This has led us to believe they were kidnapped." A whisper ran through the crowd. "Also, as many of you know, Selena is a powerful spellcaster and Zoulu is one of the strongest among us. This means whoever took them is extremely strong. We have now set a few rules in place for everyone's safety. One, no one is to be alone. Unless you are in your room you must be accompanied by a friend. Two, No one is allowed outside the temple for any reason. And three, if you see anyone you do not recognize, you are to avoid contact at all costs. You are dismissed, please return to your rooms, from now on we will signal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Except for restroom breaks no one is allowed outside their room."

The next few days were uneventful and boring. Most of the adults mounted a search party. Then one day the alarm sounded again.

When I arrived in the hall, I noticed Volteer was the only adult there. Once everyone was there, he spoke. "I have dire information. The entirety of the reconnaissance organization has disappeared. Cyril, Terrador, Spyro, Cynder, Icera, Sai in conjunction with Fever and Spyder have all absconded."

This time people started shouting and panicking, Volteer had trouble restoring order. When he finally did, he issued the new orders. "From this moment henceforth, everyone will sojourn in the main hall. No one is to emigrate without my acquiescence. Am I comprehended?"

I wanted to jokingly say 'not really' but this was a serious situation. Whoever took Selena and Zoulu now had all the adult dragons, they even managed to capture Spyro!

Later that night, when everyone was in the hall, asleep I looked around to see where Volteer was, unfortunately, he was making rounds. I tried to think if there was anything I could do to get out. Suddenly I ha d the oddest feeling, like there was something I just knew. Like instinct almost. I acted on the impulse and found myself becoming shrouded in shadows, much like Spyro or Cynder when they lose control. After I was completely enveloped, the smoke dissipated and I was shocked to see I was invisible! (well that's new.) I thought. (that wasn't a spell, was that an element? I though I was a light dragon. That wasn't any kind of light I'm familiar with.) I pushed the thought aside and took advantage of my invisibility to quietly make my way out.

Once outside, I took to the air. After I was a safe distance from the temple I stopped the mana and became visible again. I stopped in midair and closed my eyes. Again I didn't know what I was doing, but after concentrating on who knows what for a minute I just knew the direction Spyro was. I took off in that direction. I wasn't sure where they were or even how far away they were, all I knew was I had to go this way.

"Don't worry guys, I'm coming."


	5. A new freind

I traveled all day and still got no closer to wherever the other dragons were. Eventually I came across something amazing, a giant forest! The trees were for the most part normal except they were well over 500 feet tall! I had grown tired from flying and decided this was as good a place as any to stop and rest. I found an opening in the canopy and flew down to the forest floor. Once there I curled up and fell asleep.

When I woke up, I was in a room I've never seen before. I looked at myself, I was human. When I tried to drop the spell, I discovered I wasn't using it. I was really human. "Great. One of these dreams again"

I left the room and walked out into the streets. There was a blood moon out, casting an eerie light on everything. I could make out a flag next to what I assumed to be city hall and could tell I was in Texas. I made my way around town when I saw a person moving through the shadows. I couldn't quite make out his face but knew this was the killer from my previous dreams. I followed at a safe distance and knowing it was a dream just watched as he came up behind someone. "Ryan?" he asked in voice that seemed oddly familiar. The person turned around just as the man grabbed him in a headlock and shoved some sort of blade into his gut. Ryan gasped in pain, then slumped to the ground as the man released him. Several people witnessed the whole event and started screaming. The man looked around till he saw me and said "It's your destiny." Then he turned to smoke and vanished.

I woke up breathing hard. "I hate those things," I muttered. Suddenly I heard something behind me. I got up and turned around. From what light filtered through the trees, I could see it was a blood moon. "Weird." I said. Then I noticed two things more alarming, One, the hole in the trees I came in through was gone. And Two, there was a pair of red eyes watching me from the shadows.

"Hello?" I called out. The eyes moved to the right and I could hear a scraping noise. I summoned a sphere of light and could see the creature.

It was shaped like a twenty-foot panther, but was made of some kind of black stone. Suddenly I leapt at me. I rolled on the ground and swiped at it with my tail blade, It just clanged off the beasts body. As soon as it landed, I shot several balls of energy at it, instead of exploding though; the creature seemed to absorb them! I tried a different tactic and used whatever new power I had and cloaked myself The panther wasn't confused as I thought he'd be though. When I moved to the side, he followed me. He could see me!

I dropped the cloak and fired a beam of energy with the same results. "Aww man!" I said as I realized it was made of voidstone. I couldn't attack it with my tail or my breath, All I could do is pray. I got up on my hind legs and took a fighting stance. "Alright kitty, time to get the big catnip ball in the sky." The thing leapt at me. Just before it slammed into me though, a nearby tree shot out a branch that caught the thing in the chest and drove it back till it was pinned against a nearby tree. Then a strange vine wormed its way out of the ground. Its tip folded back like a flower to reveal a blade like growth. The vine then swung almost too fast to see and the creatures head was rolling on the ground. A second after the entire thing crumbled to dust. Then I heard a voice behind me "Yes! Dragon one, voidling zero!"

I turned around and saw a green dragon walking out of the forest. He was about my age and was a deep green with light green belly and wings. His horns, wing spikes and tail spike were all a light brown with a reflective sheen to them. His tail spike was shaped like Spyros, but easily twice as long. His wing spikes were blunt, but long and hooked. His horns curved up and had spikes running along the underside. He also had a bag at his side, I couldn't tell what was inside it.

"Thanks for the help." I said. I've never seen spellcasting like that before.

"HA!" the dragon laughed. I cant use magic at all, that's my element.

"What? I've never seen an element like that before."

"That's because as far as I know, I'm the only one with it. I call it 'Nature'." He replied

"Interesting, My names James, what's yours?"

"I'm Ryan."

This obviously surprised me. "Wait, Ryan? I know you."

"How? I've never even seen a silver dragon before."

"You were a human once."

"What?" He said, taking a step back. "How do you know? I've never told anyone!"

I then explained my past and weird dreams to him. He then tells me about the history of this land. "This is a long story." He said. "Long ago, this realm was controlled by a sorceress, to establish dominion over the land, she found a huge deposit of voidstone and cursed it, bringing it to life as an army she could control. Many years later an old dragon stepped forth to oppose her, his age was his best weapon as she underestimated him. You see, he was the last golden dragon, he was capable of using magic to a near infinite extent and served the role the purple dragon now holds as protector of the land. While the sorceress was destroyed, her creatures, which became known as voidlings remained and fell into disorder, roaming the land and attacking any dragons they see.

Now, the forest has tried to contain the threat by changing, as you've seen to not let anything out.

"Well that's just great, I'm on a rescue mission and I have to get out."

Ryan smirked "Well lucky you. You happened across the only dragon who can manipulate the trees. I've been meaning to get out anyway, Treetop city has become to dangerous for my kind.

"What do you mean?"

"There's a group who call themselves 'Puritans'. They believe dragons should only be of fire, earth, ice, water, wind or electricity. Anything else is an abomination that must be destroyed. I've managed to avoid them so far, but there growing in strength and are now actively hunting me."

"Wow, sorry about that. So do you want to come with me?" I asked.

"Sure, who're we rescuing?"

"Spyro and his family."

"Wait, THE Spyro?! How could he need rescuing?"

"Apparently there's someone very strong out there. I need to get them back."

So with that we set off, Ryan leading the way. He told me how the forest was vast, it would take a week to reach the other side. We passed the time telling stories first of our brief experiences as dragons, it turned out he woke up as a dragon the same day I did. (That can't be a coincidence) I thought. Then we told stories about our human lives. It turned out we knew each other. I knew him a HolyCross9 on an art website. We had almost reached the edge of the forest when we came across a group of dragons. Ryan took a low stance and growled as soon as he saw them. "Puritans." He spat.

There were three of them, all adults. The leader was an ice dragon, the other too were a fire and wind dragon. "So, Ryan. Who's your little friend there?" the wind dragon asked.

"No one dad, just a new friend."

I turned to Ryan, "Wait, your DADS a puritan? Does that mean he wants to kill you?"

"Yeah." Ryan said. "A few days ago the puritans got to my dragon father; my dragon mother tried to defend me and died in the process. It was then I decided to leave. I was heading for the forest edge when I ran across you."

I could think of many thing's to call this guy but I held my tongue. It would only make things worse. Then the ice dragon spoke to me. "So, I've never seen your color, what's your element, or should we just kill you for being such a freakish color?"

At that point I couldn't hold back my anger toward these (censored). "You want to know my element? Here, take a look!" Flared my wings and hit them with a blinding flash. While they were stunned I hit the wind dragon with a salvo of energy blasts, the explosions ripping through his body and leaving a body with several chunks missing, the wounds cauterized by the heat. Then I hit the leader with a beam of energy, the blast throwing him back and pummeling him as he was pinned against a tree, eventually the tree gave way and he continued till I cut the beam on account of a massive tree falling toward us. Me and Ryan got out of the way, but Ryan's father was trapped under a branch that fell faster than the rest of the tree. "Ryan, Help me!" he pleaded. Ryan just stared at him as the tree fell. "You killed mom and tried to kill me." A look of terror showed in the dragons eyes just before the tree came crashing down on top of him.

I fell to the ground and started heaving before I puked. "Hey, James. You ok man?" I continued to heave for a few minutes before I finally got control of myself.

"I-I killed them. And the other one might be dead too." I'm ashamed to say I started crying.

"It's ok." Ryan said "It was kill or be killed. It was horrible what we had to do but there was no other way. Now get up, they'll figure out they haven't come back and more will be here soon."

I slowly got up and we made our way to the edge. When we got there, I was amazed at what happened. The trees actually moved closer together, too close for us to get through. I noticed a small gap and though I could make it bigger. I took a deep breath ant shot a beam of energy. "No don't!" Ryan yelled, but it was too late. The beam hit the tree, but instead of blasting an exit, it rebounded straight at me. I saw it coming and braced for the impact, but it never came. I heard Ryan curse. When I opened my eyes, I was surprised to see where the beam had hit me had vaporized! My top half was floating above my lower half! I looked behind me and saw a trail of black smoke coming from my body. As I watched, the smoke drifted toward me and solidified into the missing part of my body. This time it was my turn to curse. I touched the area; it was indeed solid, as if nothing had happened. I looked at Ryan who was staring at me like I was a freak.

"How on earth did you use shadow powers?"

"What?" I asked.

"That was a defensive technique used by shadow dragons. But that's not your element!"

(This is definitely weird) I thought. Then I decided to see if it would work again. I summoned up as much strength as I could gather and hit the tree with all I had. The beam formed a double helix and rebounded just like last time. Again I braced myself, but nothing could prepare me for what happened. When the beam hit, I was blown to vapor, not a single piece of me remained, just a cloud of black smoke, which quickly reformed into my body. "That was just freaky." I said. Again I looked at my body to make sure it was all there and got a surprise, my silver scales now had black designs on them. It seemed I was some sort of blend between light and shadow. That reminded me of a set of cards from yugioh that are based on light/dark. "Chaos."

After my little stunt, Ryan got to work; he got in his bag and pulled out two seeds. Each one flew to one of his shoulders and bonded themselves with his scales. Then they sprouted into long vines that grew several yards a second, they flew towards the trees and bonded themselves to the trees, then with a look of effort on his face, the trees separated, we both jumped through and the vines detached from Ryan's body and the trees slammed back together.

The forest behind us I had no idea where to go, but when I tried sensing where Spyro was, the sense kept leading me towards Ryan. (That's it! I wasn't leading me to Spyro, but to Ryan!) the second I realized that, the sense pulled me in a new direction. Ryan, who had been on the ground, whispering stood up. "Spyros this way." He said, pointing in a different direction. "How do you know?" I asked.

"The grass remembers. A group of dragons, Spyro included went through here."

"Well I think we need to go this way." I said, pointing In the direction of the pull. "Something's telling me to go that way. And the last time I listened, It led me straight to you. I think there's someone else we need to meet before we find Spyro."

So we headed in the new direction. Neither of us had been out this far, so either one of us knew where we were going or the dangers we would soon encounter.


	6. Freind or foe?

Me and Ryan were heading in the direction of the pull, the days went by flying mostly until one evening. Ryan called from behind me. "Hey James, what's that?"

I looked behind us. "They look like storm clouds."

"Yeah, but they're red!"

It was true, the clouds were blood red and gaining fast. "We should go on foot, It's not safe to fly in a storm." I called back. My words could never be truer, within the hour the clouds caught up with us and started pouring rain the second they were overhead. ( I don't know much about this world, but I do know this storm is unnatural.) I though as I looked up and saw blue and green sheets of lightning.

The storm only got worse and worse. We had to keep our wings tightly tucked to avoid being caught in the wind. Then the clouds parted to reveal the full moon. "RYAN!" I shouted over the wind "WASN"T THERE A HALF MOON LAST NIGHT?"

"I THIK SO, WHY?" He shouted back, even though he was practically screaming, I could barely hear him.

"SO HOW COULD IT BE FULL TONIGHT?"

We both looked up at the moon and saw the silhouette of a dragon. Suddenly it dove straight at us. "MAYBE IT'S FRIENDLY!" Ryan shouted.

I took a fighting stance. (Better safe than sorry) I thought. Turns out I was right. When the dragon got close, I felt myself shoved back by an invisible force. Because I was in a solid stance, I stayed on my feet. Ryan wasn't so lucky though, he was blown off his feet and in his tumbling, his wings opened, the wind immediately caught him and pulled him into the sky. Just as I thought he was lost, a vine shot from him and latched onto the ground. It then retracted, pulling back to earth.

Then Ryan spun in a circle, causing the grass around us to grow thirty feet tall, effectively blocking the wind. The dragon above us made a movement with its arms and we were pulled up into the air. Before we cleared the grass, I made a strong beat with my wings, sending me rocketing toward the dragon. Then I transformed to human form so I wouldn't be caught in the wind and drew my tantō. Just as the dragon pushed me back, I teleported behind it, retaining the downwards force the push gave me I came down on the dragon hard. I straddled it and held my blade to its throat. "Land." I told it.

When we were on the ground, Ryan threw some seeds at us; I jumped clear just as the seeds sprouted into leafy vines that bound the dragon. Unable to move she; as I could now tell it was female, was unable to use her strange powers. She was a dark copper color with a frill on the back of her neck making her appear like a triceratops. Further enhancing this look, she had a short horn on her nose. Instead of horns on the top of her head, she had medium length horns on each check that curved downwards. Her tail ended in a narrow, whip like tip.

"What was that for?" I shouted over the wind. She just looked away and said nothing. We couldn't afford to have her escape, so I stood on two legs and whacked her in the side of the head hoping I didn't kill her. Luckily, she was only unconscious as planned. Then, as soon as she was out the rain stopped and the sky cleared. We looked up in amazement and saw the moon was just past its half stage again. We decided to stop here and wait for this mysterious dragoness to wake up. When she finally did, we started asking questions. She wouldn't answer any of them.

"Fine." I said. "You've left us no choice." I went over and talked with Ryan for a minute. We came back over. I you won't talk willingly, we'll make you. I pulled her down and the vines moved so she was on her back, her legs stretched out. Ryan reached under her and put something under her.

"That's a bamboo seed." I told her. "The remarkable thing about bamboo is it grows remarkably fast. About an inch an hour. When it first sprouts, it's also razor sharp. If you don't answer our questions within three hours you'll have a punctured lung. In five, you'll be dead. In ten, we'll have a nice little plant to look at."

The dragon had a look of terror in her eyes. I leaned in close. "So lets begin. Who sent you?" She looked away. "Fine. I said. Just remember what's growing under you right now. We can wait. It won't be long.

Not even ten minutes passed before we heard her say "Ōumĭ Jiā." We turned to her. "What?" I asked.

"That's the name of my master! Ōumĭ Jiā! Now let me go! It hurts!"

"Not yet, we still have some questions. Who is this 'Ōumĭ jiā'?"

"He's a strong dragon, he gave me the power to capture Spyro and his family."

Ryan looked at me, then back at her. "What does he want?" he asked.

"He's trying to amass an army of evil and destroy the 'Hub universe' whatever that is. Please let me go! I can feel it in me!"

I turned to Ryan. "The hub universe is the world we came from. When someone imagines a world, It becomes a Separate universe, connected by a metaphorical spoke. Since they all come back to our world connected by these spokes, it's called the hub universe. If he destroys our world, every universe in existence will cease to exist."

I turned back to the dragon. I had just one more question. "What's your name?"

She turned her head to me, "What?"

"What is your name?" I repeated.

"I don't know! Ōumĭ Jiā made me forget! Please let me go!"

I got an idea. Using light in one hand then trying and succeeding to use shadow in the other hand, I put my hands to her head. "Does that help?"

"Yes! I remember now! My names Jacy!"

I jumped up and stood back. "WHAT?!" Jacy? The (censored) are you doing here?!"

"What are you talking about? You put me here!"

I got closer to her. "Jacy, It's me. James."

Jacy stopped trying to free herself and looked at me. "You lie. My brothers dead."

I just shook my head smiling. You used to be human, then you woke up one day in this world and body. Your favorite singer is Taylor Swift. You're practically in love with Taylor Lautner. You had a blue DSi and our cats were Gizmo and Boo."

She stared at me for half a second before saying "It really is you. How'd you get here?"

"Same way you and Ryan here did. We were killed and woke up in these bodies."

"Wait a second, I'm DEAD?!" She shouted.

"No." I said. "It's more like… reincarnation. Are you gonna attack us again?"

"No, whatever you did broke Ōumĭ Jiā's spell over me."

I leaned in close to her. "By the way, have you ever heard the word 'psychosomatic'? It means 'all in your head'. You were never under torture. That's a rock under you, not a bamboo seed." I used my tail blade and cut the vines holding her. And she got up. "Well, normally I'd be Po'ed that you did that to me, but you saved me so I'll let it slip this time."

"Well considering all this is mostly your fault, you wanna help us rescue Spyro?" I asked.

"Sure! Plus I know exactly where they are."

(Awesome,) I thought (Cue Final Fantasy music, 'Jacy has joined the party!')

"Well," I started "For right now were going somewhere else, I'm being pulled by something, the last time I followed the pull I ran into Ryan. So My guess is there's someone else we need to meet first."

With that we headed off. A chaos dragon, a nature dragon and what Jacy called a 'force' dragon. She explained how she could move things by thinking it. "That's called "Psychokinesis'." I told her.

A week later, I could feel we were about halfway there. We decided to stop for the night.

"Hey, guys?" I said. "How 'bout a sparring match?"

"Alright." They both said.

"I'll watch you two go at it first, then fight the winner." I said.

I used my light to burn the outline of a battlefield on the ground. It slightly resembled a basketball court and was a little bigger. They took their positions on either side of the field. "Aright, I'll judge." I said. "No finishing moves, and non lethal force. We don't want to be killing each other. Alright, GO!"

Jacy flared her wings and Ryan was pulled of his feet, dangling in midair. Then he was slammed into the ground. Jacy then pushed him through the dirt. Before he went out of bounds though, he threw a seed that hit Jacy in the forehead and sprouted into a flower that glowed red. Jacy was in some sort of pain from the flower. This distracted her enough for Ryan to get back to his feet. Then he attached a seed to his tail, it bonded with him and grew into a thorny vine. He whipped his tail, causing the vine to hit the ground and tear through the dirt toward Jacy. She voided it just in time and countered with another push. Ryan was ready this time, he jumped with the push and a line of bamboo sprouted behind him. He hit it, causing it to bend and rebound him toward Jacy, He spun in midair, the whip swinging toward Jacy, She jumped back but should have ducked, the whip hit her in the face, leaving a red line that dripped a single drop of blood. She recovered just in time to se the whip come back and hit the other side of her face, leaving another line.

Again the whip came around, but she tilted her head, causing the vine to wrap around her cheek horn. She then yanked and force pushed Ryan at the same time. Ryan spun around and the vine was ripped from his tail. The push and pull canceled each other and he fell to the dirt facing away from Jacy. He quickly got up and got a safe distance from her, then stabbed his tail into the ground. Suddenly a mass of trees sprouted from underneath Jacy, knocking her high into the air. She opened her wings and took flight, but the trunks followed her, playing a dangerous game of aerial tag. Then the trees stopped growing, Jacy looked back to make sure they weren't following her. When she turned back, Ryan was in the air in front of her. Suddenly they were both wrapped in the same vines. Their wing pinned to their sides and Ryan pinned face to face with Jacy.

"What are you doing?!" Jacy shouted as Ryan's momentum still carried them up.

They started to curve back toward earth, headfirst. "You ever watch Naruto?" Ryan asked. They stated spinning at a great speed. "This ones called Primary Lotus!" The vines released them a fraction of a second before they hit the ground. And Ryan opened his wings as Jacy hit the ground with huge force. Ryan landed next to me "And that's how it's done."

When the dust cleared, a small dent in the ground was visible. Jacy lay there, unconscious but alive. We waited for her to wake up. When she did fifteen minutes later, she zigzagged to us and flopped over. "Ok, you won." she said.

Ryan and me took our places. I analyzed his strengths and weaknesses. Most of his stronger plants were in that bag of his, but he could still manipulate plants already on the ground, including bamboo, those trees he made and the grass. Plus whatever weeds were around. I could somehow get the bag from him, I could at least disrupt his strategy, however that was unlikely at best. I decided I had to go fast and put him down before he could launch a powerful attack. "Ready?" Jacy yelled. "Go!"

Immediately shot a salvo of energy balls at him, powered down to a level I hoped would only stun him. He dodged and to my dismay, got a single seed out of bag and put it on his forehead. It sprouted and grew like a fungus, spreading across his entire body in a transparent skin. I shot him with a blast of light. He made no attempt to dodge and the blast hit, but had no effect, instead the plant glowed momentarily before fading back to transparent. "Ha!" he laughed. "This is the Hypersynthisis plant! It'll absorb all light in the area and is commonly used to darken a room. Your element is useless! Never thought I'd use it in a combat situation though…" Then he pulled seven seeds out, they attached to the base of his tail and sprouted into seven thorny vines the length of his tail.

With my element out of the question, I decided to go close range, I stood up and ran at him, I was now twice his height, but the vines gave me no opening. Whenever I cut one, it just grew back to its original length the battle was going against me and I was forced to drop to all fours to take a defensive approach, then he got through my defense and hit me hard with three vines twisted together. I flew off my feet and landed next to the tree. Then I got an idea. I got up and shot a blast of light at him, again, the plant covering him absorbed it, but it provoked him into attacking. I held my ground. He leapt at me, the vines twisting together to form a web that swept at me. Just as he was about to hit, I flared my wings and loosed a flare of light, it blinded Ryan and I jumped straight up, then kicked off the tree, landing several feet behind Ryan as the vines hit the tree and their thorns stuck in the wood.

Ryan tried to escape and called to him. "Hey, If your plant likes light, what would happen if there wasn't any?" with that I shrouded myself in shadow, then did something I never tried before, I partially turned to smoke, then I flew at him, passing straight through him and I heard a scream. When I came out, I solidified and looked back at the wailing. The plant was screaming and shriveling. Eventually it died and fell to the ground as a husk. Then I jumped in the air and when I was directly over Ryan, shot a beam of energy from my mouth, shoving him into the ground and bowling out the earth. I dove straight down and as he got up, put my tail blade to his throat. "I win."

After our fight, we had dinner that Jacy caught, a deer. Then we went to bed.

When I woke up, I was in a house, in my human body. "(censored) I hate these dreams!" I got up to see where I was and who would die next. I left the room I was in and recognized the house as my aunt and uncles. Then I remembered everyone who died in these dreams so far died in real life. I ran to each room, trying to prevent it, Finally I got to my cousin, Kenji's room. I opened the door and saw he was asleep with no one inside. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then my ears were pounded by a gunshotbehind me and I watched as my cousins head exploded. I swung my elbow behind me and made contact with the assassin, then I swung around and delivered a kick to his head, he fell to the ground and the gun left his hand, I picked it up and aimed it at him. I couldn't see his face, but he spoke again and this time I recognized who he was. "You can't kill me, this is our job. Otherwise there' s no hope against Ōumĭ Jiā. I dropped the gun and stared as he stood up and held his arms out, a ball of black energy appearing in one hand an a ball of white energy appearing in the other. When the balls were brought together, a beam of spiraling black and white energy shot out and formed a vortex in front of him. I could see the dragon temple on the other side. Once through, the portal closed and I woke up.


	7. The worst dream

I sat there for a while, thinking about the dream I just had. If I was right, and so far the theory was right three for three, my cousin was dead. Furthermore, I now knew who killed all of us and it didn't help any. After a while Jacy and Ryan woke up and asked where we were going next. I slowly got up and prepared to take off when we heard a buzzing sound. We looked around for the source and I saw three creatures coming at us fast. I instantly realized what these machines were and was terrified.

"Uhh, guys?" I asked "Any idea why transformers would be here?"

Jacy muttered something under her breath. "Ōum ĭ Jiā ripped these things out of their universe to serve him."

"Great." I said. I looked over at Ryan who was in disbelief. "Insecticons." He said.

"Insecticons? I think I've heard of those." I said "Who are they?"

Ryan looked over at us. "Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback. Very unstable Decepticons that are ravenous for energy, very likely they sensed our bioenergy and now were on the menu. The most dangerous is Bombshell, the rhino beetle. Don't let him sting you or he'll inject mind control circuits into you."

The robots closed on us and one of them, the grass hopper transformed to robot mode, the other to shot grenades and mortars at us. Jacy opened her wings and the explosives dove to the ground and exploded harmlessly.

"I got the big one!" I shouted and leapt at the grasshopper. Bad move, he rolled on his back and just as I came down on him he delivered a double kick that sent me flying into the air. I was in too much pain to open my wings and simply fell to earth a few hundred yards off. I coughed and saw blood. I tried to get up and felt an explosive pain in my chest. I was pretty sure at least one rib was broken. I could only lay there and watch as my friends battled outnumbered.

One of the insecticons shot a blot of lightning at Jacy, a bamboo sprouted from the ground in front of her, attracting the lightning. Afterwards, Jacy opened her wings and the bamboo came out of the ground and flew at the insecticon. It hit and penetrated at a joint, causing on of his legs to start twitching uncontrollably. Meanwhile, Ryan was fighting Kickback and Bombshell. Ryan had double thorn whips and was fighting hand to hand with Kickback, who was three times his size. I saw Bombshell coming up from behind, preparing to sting Ryan. I took a deep breath to warn him, but had to let it out as once again my chest exploded in pain. In a last ditch effort, I summoned all my strength and shot a large energy blast, it exploded on bombshell, knocking him back, his head cannon hanging listlessly to the side.

Ryan, meanwhile was using his size to his advantage, he wrapped the vines around Kickback's legs and pulled himself between them, then took off, pulling Kickback onto his face. Ryan than detached the vines and let then fall to the ground. The He pulled a seed out of his bag. "Hey kickback! Wanna snack?" He shouted. Kickback looked up and scanned the seed. Upon seeing it's huge power supply, he charged Ryan.

Ryan threw the seed, which Kickback caught in his mouth. Ryan smiled smugly. "Gotcha." Suddenly, Kickback stopped in his tracks, a moment later he started screaming as leaves and twigs pushed out of his joints, within moments, the giant bush had grown out of his mouth and punched through his body and took root. It continued to grow till it pushed him apart from the inside, leaving a beautiful bush surrounded by scrap metal.

Shrapnel and Bombshell saw what happened and decided it wasn't worth the time. "We'll be back-back-back-back." Shrapnel said as they took off.

After Ryan and Jacy were sure they were gone, they went to get me. "Hey man, you alright?" Ryan asked. I tried standing, but the pain was too much and I slumped back down.

"No, I think I broke a rib or four. I think I can walk on my hind legs though. Jacy helped me up while Ryan grew a small tree. Once I was on my hind legs, I cut a branch off the tree with my tail and used it as a walking stick.

We continued our journey and eventually came across a village in the distance. It was arranged like a western town, one street with houses on one side, shops on the other. At the end of the street was what appeared to be the house of the town elder or leader. There were children playing in the streets and dragons coming in and out of the shops. I looked at the others. "We're here. The pull stopped."

We went into a valley and lost sight of the town. When we came out and could see the town again, we were surprised.

It was empty.

The children were gone, No one was outside, all the doors were closed and the shutters drawn. We entered the street and looked around. All the shops had closed signs on them. We knocked on a few doors, aside from some shuffling noises there was no answer. We made our way to the leaders house and knocked. "Excuse me, but we need your help. Something told us to come here and our friends need help."

Nothing.

I got an idea from something Spyder did once. A ball of shadow appeared in my hand, I press my palm to the lock and felt around for the tumblers, they slid into place and I opened the door, only to be met with a painfully hot blast of wind that blew us all off our feet and into the dirt several yards away. "We don't like outsiders or trespassers." A voice said. I looked up and was shocked. (That's been happening a lot.)

He was a dragon, but not one at the same time. He had a human body covered in light green scales, his feet were dragon like with human elements too. His hands were like ours, basically human with claws. His head was mostly dragon, but shorter than most. His horns were short and his tail matched his height with nothing on the tip. His large green and blue wings poked out of the back of the leather vest he wore. With nothing under the vest he had heavy cotton pants with hard leather plates sewn into them.

He began a complex series of movements, which I found familiar. (It look's like Ba-Gua) I thought. Then we were thrown up into the air by another gust, then the dragon stepped forward and punched, loosing a column of fire that turned into a field of fire below us. We opened our wings and glided to safety. The dragoon then began a series of violent punches and kicks that send balls, blasts and walls of fire toward us. Jacy opened her wings and they all flew straight up and fizzled out.

The dragon then moved his arms in a circle and a sphere of visible air formed under him. He jumped on it and rode it towards us. It was then I had a good idea who we were fighting. "Jacy, Ryan! Get out of here, NOW!" They took flight and the dragon bore down on me, a sphere of blue energy appearing in his hand. He thrust it out and shouted "RASENGAN!"

I braced myself and the attack passed through me, my body tuning to smoke then re-solidifying. I turned to face him. "I can't fight you! I'm hurt!"

"Then you shouldn't have come here!" He said. "I'm the village protector. Until I'm called to a higher purpose, I stay here to defend these people." He then made another Rasengan, but I was surprised when it burst into flames. (This must be the fire element version of RasenShurikan.) I though. Not wanting to take the chance, I focused on something, ANYTHING that would defend me from this. I opened my eyes. A mass of shadow appeared on my arm and spread up and down to form some kind of shield. The dragon then threw the missile shouting "RASENMETEOR!" the missile hit the shield and made a "pss." Sound and vanished. Me and my opponent were shocked at the shields effectiveness.

I knew exactly who I was fighting now. I dropped the shield and it turned to smoke and vanished. "Kenji, I wont fight you."

"What?!" he said "How do you know my name?"

I closed my eyes and there was a flash of light. When it cleared, I was standing there as a human, holding onto a log twice my height for support. I smiled at Kenjis face as he recognized me. "Lucky guess." I said.

"James?! I thought you were dead!"

"Yeah." I said. "I've been getting that a lot lately. Can we talk now? Something led us to you. And Spyros been captured."

"WHAT?!" He shouted. "Come on in. we'll talk. Hang on a second." He then shouted "It's alright, they're friends! You can come out!"

Doors opened and faces peered out as we went inside to talk.

The others sat down. I stayed up as it hurt to bend my torso. Kenji noticed this. "James, why don't you sit down?"

I looked at him, "First, you have to understand there are thing going on that don't make sense. With that in mind, I got my ribs broken in a fight with the Insecticons."

"Insecticons? You mean like, Transformers?" He asked, confused.

"Yeah, exactly."

"What happened to them?"

Ryan spoke up. "I killed one, the rest ran off."

"Dang." Kenji said before turning to me. "So what were you saying about Spyro?"

I started from the beginning, telling them all how I woke up as a dragon and befriended Spyro and his family. Then how they started vanishing and the measures the guardians took to ensure everyone's safety. I told them about my escape and finding Ryan. Then I told Jacy and Kenji about our journey until Jacy found us with Ryan's input.

"Wait a sec!" Kenji yelled, turning to Jacy. "Jacy, it's you?!"

"Sure is." She said.

Kenji turned to me. "How many other people are here that we know?"

"So far I only know about us."

They all turned to me. Jacy asked the question I had been dreading. "What are you talking about?"

I turned my back to them. "There's something I haven't told any of you. I've had these dreams. In them I'm human. The first one I woke up in a morgue." I said before turning to face them again. "I thought it was real until I looked down and saw myself. I was dead."

"Shot" Jacy said.

"Wait, You know?" I asked her.

"Of course! Before I woke up as a dragon, you'd been dead for about a year."

I thought about this for a minute before continuing. "The second dream, I was back in our house, then I heard a gun. I ran in to see what happened and I saw… someone… standing in your room. "He" shot you. The next dream I had I was in a city, I saw the same person from the last dream so I followed him. I saw him come up behind Ryan and stab him. Then the last dream I was in Your house Kenji. I knew what would happen and tried to stop it, but the same guy shot you too."

When I finished, they were staring open mouthed at me. "So wait." Jacy said. "You mean were all dead?"

"Well, we died, yes. But were alive now. I think it's some kind of reincarnation thing."

I then continued my story about how we beat Jacy, learned about Ōum ĭ Jiā and his plans to destroy every world, and freed her, then about our travels to Kenji's town. WhenI was caught up with the present, I continued.

"From here, we're planning to rescue Spyro and his family. Once they're free, I'm going to find Ōum ĭ Jiā and stop him."

"What about us?" Jacy said.

"Well, dragons mature later than humans, around 30, so I imagine you'll stay at the dragon temple. In history class-"

"CLASS?!" they yelled.

"Yes, dragons have school too. It's actually stuff we can use though, half the classes are stuff like combat, element and flight training. Anyway in history, we learned that a few dragons have made a life before they came of age, but they never went through the right of passage and were considered children the rest of their lives. So really you can do whatever you want after this."

After a silence, Kenji spoke up. "Well I'm with you."

I looked at him "What?"

"I'm more powerful than I look, and that's saying something. If this Ōum ĭ Jiā is as strong as you guys say, your going to need all the help you can get."

"Me too" Jacy said. "I'm partly responsible for everything, and you're my brother, we gotta stick together here."

"I'm in." Ryan said. "I can't go back to the forest and don't know anything about dragon life so I'll stay with you guys."

I looked at everyone and started tearing. "Thanks everyone."

"Hey look!" Jacy said "James's crying!"

Despite the pain I whipped my tail to her throat. "If your staying with me, rule number one: We are NOT being rude to each other. Got it?" I took the blade away and heard a crack, then a searing pain in my chest. I took a breath to scream, but couldn't. From what I figured, one of the ribs punctured a lung. I was gripped with terror as I collapsed.

"JAMES!" Jacy shouted. She ran over and I could see her hands covered in a dark purple haze, She put her hands on top of my head, then strained them through me! Her hands passed through my body and I could feel an ultimate cold and malevolent presence where her hands were, I wanted to run, but was gasping for breath. When she got to my chest, she pulled her hands out. The haze vanished. She turned to the others. "His lungs, punctured, he'll die soon if we don't do something. My vision went black and I heard no more.

"Aw man," I said "He's already out. Kenji, do you have anything that might help?"

"I have a spell that might help, but I need three giant flowers." He said, watching Jacy trying to wake James up.

"No problem." I said as I reached in my bag and pulled out three seeds. I focused my mana on them and grew them into three beautiful flowers half our height.

"Thanks Ryan." Kenji said he raised his hands and the flowers arranged themselves in a triangle around James, Jacy got out of the way as there was a flash of green light. "Curaga!" Kenji shouted, and the flowers exploded, the tiny petals swirling in a vortex around James before vanishing into thin air.

When I came to, the first thing I noticed was the pain was gone. I got up and looked at everyone. "What happened?"

"Well, you passed out and Ryan and Kenji used some kind of weird magic to heal you." Jacy said.

"Thanks" I told them before rounding on Jacy, I stood up, my head brushing the ceiling and gathered two balls of light energy in my hands. "You've got some explaining to do. That… thing you did to me, that was dark magic! I thought you said you were on our side!"

Jacy had lowered herself to the floor, "I am! My exposure to Ōum ĭ Jiā's magic gave me these powers! Like Cynder!"

The light faded and I lowered myself to the floor. "Fine. That makes sense, I suppose, but I'll be watching you. Like Sparx."

Kenji said goodbye to the town and we left for destination unknown. Jacy hadn't taken Spyro this way, So the plants couldn't tell Ryan which way to go, and Jacy didn't know this area, so we headed east. All was uneventful until I suddenly felt a huge pull, like the ones that lead me to my friends, but so strong it took all my strength and even some mana not to take off in that direction as fast as I could.

"Guys, I've gotta go!" I said.

"Hey man," Kenji said "There's some trees down there, have fun."

"That's not funny! I mean something's pulling me north, it's too strong for me to resist. You guys stay here, I've never felt anything this strong and I don't want to risk your safety. I'll come back when I figure this out." Before they could talk, I turned and headed north, I used my light to create a blast of energy behind me, I accelerated so fast I had to close my to avoid losing them. After a while, I got tired and had to land. I ran for a while before I couldn't move anymore. I eventually fell asleep thinking about the pull.

When I woke up, I was human. "##$ing #&^+! Not this again!" I headed through the dream making a vow to stop this person from dieing even if I had to kill myself. I was in a shadowy haze, after I had lost hope of finding my way out, it faded and I could see where I was. "Oh no." I whispered and ran up the steps and tried to open the door, it was locked. I remembered something I read in the transformation scroll. It's technically possible to use your element while transformed, but it's extremely unstable and more likely to cause harm to yourself than your target. Ignoring the warning, I gathered a ball of light and blasted the doorknob and deadbolt out of the door and kicked the door open. My mother in law wasn't there and seeing as the car was gone, I assumed my sister in law was too. I ran to my wife's room and tried to open the door. It was locked. "Go away!" I heard Perrin yell "I have a knife!"

Hearing Perrins voice after so long was like angels singing, but there was no time for that. "Perrin it's James! We have to get you out of here!"

The door opened and Perrin ran out and into my arms. "James! I thought you were dead! I was at the funeral. What happened? And what was that noise?"

"Sorry, I had to get in and there will be time to explain everything later, right now we have to get out of here, someone's coming here to kill you or Laura."

"What? How do you know?"

"Long story, but you have to trust me on this."

"Alright" She said. "Let me get my shoes. Go get Laura."

Laura was in Perrins room, she saw me and was confused for a minute, then toddled over to me. I picked her up and she hugged me. I hugger back then heard Perrin. "What are you doing here? Wait! What?! No-"

I put Laura down and ran to the living room to see Perrin in the arms of… him, he let go and she slid to the ground, leaving a trail of blood on his clothes. She hit the ground and rolled over, her throat was slashed. She was still breathing! I ran to her and held her head and tried to stop the bleeding. She looked at me "why?" she wheezed before she closed her eyes and stopped breathing.

I noticed I was crying as a tear fell onto her eye and slid down her cheek, almost as if she had shed it. I put her down and whipped around and shot a beam of light at the man, he dodged it and raised his hands. I was surrounded by black smoke and was paralyzed. "Tsk Tsk. James" he said. "We both know you know about time-space enough to know what'll happen if you kill me. Besides. I've got to finish here."

I spit on him. "You bastard! How could you even think of doing this? First Perrin, and now you'll finish?! She's just a two year old!"

"It's for the best." He said and left me to go to Perrins room. I started crying more and begging him not to. Then I heard a gunshot and woke up screaming in the wilderness." I screamed into the night until my throat hurt to much to make noise, then began walking in the direction of the pull under the quarter moon.


	8. A rapturous reunion

I made my way through the night, my grief at what I had seen almost enough to make me give up. I knew Perrin would be here now, but I still wished she didn't have to die and give up eternity. The pull eventually took me far north and I could see two mountains far higher than the range around them. I knew what these were. In dragon school we were taught about the twin peaks far to the north, the highest mountains in the known world. The taller one was six miles high and at the very top were the ruins of the northern dragon temple, Icera's old home. However I was drawn to the shorter one, however at two miles high it was still a daunting challenge to get to the top.

As I made my way up, It made me appreciate how strong Icera and Byancyra were, halfway up, my wings couldn't work in the thin atmosphere. To think they were able to fly at the top of the other mountain means their wings must be incredibly strong. I ended up stretching my powers to the limits and teleported the rest of the way.

Once at the top I saw a large wall. It appeared to be a city and I was drawn straight to it. As I reached the gates, two cheetahs intercepted me. "Halt!" one of them said. "What's your business here?"

"I'm looking for someone." I told them.

"The city's closed until construction is completed to all except inhabitants. You'll have to leave."

Not about to leave empty handed, I tried to teleport, but found my mana blocked. The gate had some sort of barrier! So I did what anyone would come up with, I backtracked a few paces till I could feel my mana return and using my shadow cloak, became invisible and since I couldn't fly at this height, I transformed to my human form and ran straight at the wall, once I got to it, I focused more mana on an attraction to the wall and my feet and ran straight up and over. Once clear, I jumped off, Returned to dragon form and glided to the ground, where I uncloaked and went in search of Perrin as the pull stopped when I entered the city.

After a few fruitless hours of asking around, I saw two dragons in a fight. Before I could do anything however, one of them took a serious blow to the throat. The winner took off in the confusion and I heard someone yell "Get him to the hospital!" I realized I would be able to help, so I came up to the dragon holding the wound shut and asked where the hospital was. When she told me I grabbed the dying dragons arm and teleported us to the hospital. There were orderlies outside that took us into the healing area. As the healing dragon came out, I was told to leave. Just as I was, I noticed something… interesting about the healer, but couldn't quite put my hand on it.

After a few minutes, the wounded dragon and healer came out. The dragon thanked me for getting me to the hospital and went on his way. The healer came up to me.

"You're lucky" she said. "Much longer and he would have bled out."

"It was the only to do." I said. As she turned around, I noticed something that made me hold my breath.

There was a mark on her ankle the shape of a crucifix with a ring around the intersection.

"Wait!" I called. She turned around. "How about after you get off, me and you go somewhere?"

She got a sad look. "Thanks, but there was someone else a long time ago and I still haven't let go."

I smiled at her, "About a year, right?"

She gave me a surprised look. "How do you know?"

I walked up to her and showed her the ring on my tail. "Does this look familiar?"

She examined it. "A little, why?"

I got near her and whispered: "Shark repellent".

She looked confused for a moment before her eyes lit up. "James?! It's really you?"

"Yep, I've got a lot to tell you about." Before I could start though, she ran up and hugged me. Just as I was going to open my mouth to speak, she kissed me, I've never thought of dragons as having lips, but apparently they do. It was just as I remembered. Her lips were soft as you could imagine and her affection filled my soul. I then realized I could feel Perrin's emotions as well as my own. I wondered if she could feel mine, but decided to inquire later.

When the kiss was over, she looked into my eyes with a look of sadness. "It's been so long." She said. "The last time I saw you was at your funeral. How can you be alive?"

Now it was my turn to look guilty. "Well, you see for a human to get here, they have to reincarnate. What was the last thing you remember before coming here?"

"I just went to sleep, then I woke up here, why?"

"Perrin, there's no easy way to really say this so I'll repeat myself, to be here, you have to have reincarnated, as in your next life."

It slowly dawned on Perrins and you could see it in her face. "So wait… your saying I'm, dead?"

"No." I told her. "You died, but your obviously alive now." I could feel her mood lighten a little.

"So," I asked, "Where's Laura?" I instantly felt such great sadness coming from Perrin that it dropped me to the floor.

"James! Are you alright?" She asked as I slowly got up.

"Yeah, it's… something I'll explain soon. What's wrong though?"

"I haven't seen Laura since I came here." she said on the verge of tears. I had to use a mental technique from another dragon book I read once to shield myself from her emotions.

"So, She's not in the dragon realms?"

Perrin shook her head and I was overcome with relief, Perrin looked up. "What are you so happy about?" I found this strange, as I hadn't shown any outward signs of my emotions. (She must be able to pick up my emotions too.) I decided.

"Well," I told her "If she's not here, that means she hasn't died." (I wonder what happened in Perrins room between Laura and… yeah. I definitely heard a gunshot, but if he didn't shoot her, then what happened?) I thought.

Perrin seemed cheered up more by this, but I could still feel her sadness at not seeing our daughter for months. "Don't worry, we'll see her again." I told her inwardly hoping we never would considering what would have to happen to her.

Perrin and I left the hospital and as we made our way to the gate, I explained the current situation, how we were going to find Spyro and his family, and about Ōumĭ Jiā and his plans for utter destruction. As we passed through the gate I couldn't help but say hi to the guard who had denied me entry and laughed at his shocked look. We jumped off the cliff and glided the two miles to the flight ceiling at which point I led her back to the others.

I could see them in the distance I sent them a message that we were here in the form of a ball of light I threw to hover in front of them. Perrin was surprised by the sphere and I told her When we landed I would explain everyone's abilities. So naturally we had a race. She won. I was surprised by Perrins speed. I knew that her body combined with that speed would make her lethal in combat. (Mental note, don't get her mad.)

When we arrived, I introduced everyone. "Everyone this is my wife Perrin." Jacy and Kenji were surprised. "Perrin, this is Ryan, his element allows him to control plants. This is Kenji, my cousin." This time it was Perrins turn to look surprised. "His element allows him to control fire and wind, he also has magical abilities. And lastly, you know Jacy of course." Again, shock. "Her element is basically telekinesis; she also has access to dark magic." I said with a hint of aggression in my voice.

After that, we rested a while everyone became acquainted with everyone else. We slept there for the night and I lay awake for a while thinking about everything, Ōumĭ Jiā, Jacy's past, Spyro and his family, the missing guardians, and what happened between Laura and … I finally got tired and went to sleep by Perrins side.


	9. Revenge and reinforcements

I woke up and felt someone next to me; I looked over and saw pink. Everything from the past few days came rushing back to me and I knew where we should go next. For now though, I would make up for lost time by waiting with Perrin for everyone else to wake up.

I then realized I had my first restful nights sleep in a while, No real nightmares, and no worrying about having one. Instead, I had regular dreams of nonsense. It was a bit fuzzy, but I seem to remember something about a scurrying midget in an R2-D2 costume carrying a huge mushroom to help Luke and Leia Skywalker. I smiled at the silliness of it and snuggled closer to my sleeping wife.

The sun still wasn't up yet, so I decided to go hunting. I flew over a nearby wood and spotted some kind of large creature, I decided to try something I remembered Spyro doing before, I focused my will on the creature and dove into it's mind. I was searching for sentience, I found none, so rather than trying to dive on it I simply focused my light into a small beam and pierced it's heart, it dropped and I swooped in to bring it back. As I landed, I felt a presence nearby. I used this power I was making up (I wonder if any dragon can do this or just me and Spyro?) to search around me and contacted a dark mind with a low level of intelligence. All I could make out through the darkness is it wanted me dead.

Suddenly a voidling crept out of the bushes. I cursed to myself. The thing didn't resemble anything I had seen before and was hard to describe, the stone creature had no face and its lean body was constantly rotating, two of it's front legs and it's back legs looked like bear legs, but it also had a second pair of front legs that looked like joined spears.

I knew like last time my element and magic would be ineffective. The thing leapt at me and I rolled onto my back and kicked it, sending it flying into a tree. It got up incredibly fast and attacked again. I rolled to the side and slashed at it with my tail. My tail blade is harder than steel, but contact with the stone creature broke the last few inches off it. I screamed in pain and tried my best to keep my eyes clear through the pain. I then transformed. While I was still aware of the pain, it felt like it was somewhere else. I drew my tanto and hoped the diamond edge would hold up. The creature leapt at me, I ducked to the side and slashed as it went past. It fell to the ground in two pieces. I got up and walked over, "Sorry, no hard feelings. I: just don't want to die right now." I said and put my blade through it's head and it crumbled to dust and floated away on the wind.

I resumed my dragon form and instantly felt the screaming pain in my tail. Wincing, I went over, picked up the piece of my tail, and put it in my mouth. Then I walked over, picked up breakfast and flew back. When I got back The others welcomed me back with the surprise breakfast I had. When I landed and dropped the blade piece though, Perrin spoke up. "Big deer get you back did it?" she said with a smirk.

I glared at her, not in the mood for jokes. "No. For your information, I got mixed up with a voidling and this really hurts."

"Well come here then." She said as she picked up the blade piece. I gave her my tail and she put the pieces together. The crack between them glowed pink, then vanished along with the pain.

"Thanks." I said "What would I do without you?"

"Don't know, probably get yourself killed." She replied.

After Kenji cooked the meat, I decided to try something. "Hey Kenji?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you could envelop something in a sphere of air when you cant see it?"

He thought for a minute before nodding his head.

I turned to Jacy. "Do you think if I teleported you a few miles up you could figure out where we need to go?"

"Probably."

So Kenji put an air bubble around Jacy to shield her from the thin atmosphere and I focused all my mana into my teleportation spell. With a whistle, Jacy was gone. After half a minute, I couldn't hold her up there anymore and another whistle above us announced her arrival. "I know where to go." She said "Follow me!" and she took off southeast.

Jacy was at point while Me and Perrin flew next to each other behind her. Kenji and Ryan flew behind us, making a V formation. Something was bugging me so I asked. "Hey Kenji?"

"Yeah?"

"With your wings coming from your wrists like that, they shouldn't be big enough to support your weight, how can you fly?"

He laughed. "I guess you're not as big an Avatar fan as you claim to be. Remember how Aang uses airbending to fly his glider?

Now it made sense. He used his wind powers to create an updraft under him, pushing him up while he flapped his wings to create forward momentum.

We were nearing the coast when I felt a strange presence, they were intelligent, but unlike anything I ever felt. It was like a collective conscience. Then I saw them. "Guys, don't look now, but the insecticons are back."

The robots met us and transformed, Their grenade and mortar launchers tuning into pistols. Bombshell spoke first. "You killed our brother, now it's time we returned the favor."

"And this time, were not alone, alone, alone." Shrapnel said.

I felt the collective mind awaken and five machines drove out of the water. I cursed heavily. "Kenji, Jacy, Handle these creeps and watch out for bombshells cerebro shells. I don't want to have to kill one of you. Perrin, Ryan we're going after them." I said, pointing towards the trucks on the ground.

We left Kenji and Jacy to fight the insecticons while the rest of us went into what I knew would be our toughest fight yet. Just as we got there, the robots transformed and started stacking on each other. When they were done, We were looking at the biggest transformer of them all. "I AM DEVASTATOR!!!" it rumbled before opening multiple plates on its body and cannons came out. I put up a wall of shadow just in time as Devastator fired hundreds of lasers at us, they were absorbed by the shadows and somehow I felt as if they were fueling me somehow. I also felt an anger rising in me for some reason, but I dismissed it and dropped the shield to attack. Perrin went low to try and take out it's balance servos. Ryan flew behind it and tried to find weak points, I meanwhile started to fire a beam of light, but held it in, allowing pressure to build. Then after I had charged it, I released the blast, I was surprised and thought back to Spyro training me with light, My attack was identical to his, the beam was moving so fast, it hit itself from behind, creating a pulsing effect, I could feel space warping around it. I almost passed out from the sheer force of being so close to it.

It slammed into Devastator and splashed off its armor before punching through its chest and clear out the back. It hit the ocean behind him and there was an explosion of steam. I cut the attack and waited for it to fall. Far from it, I watched in horror as it started regenerating.

"BUG-BOTS GIVE DEVASTATOR NANOBOT UPGRADE" it rumbled.

I realized what it was talking about. It had nanobots in its body that would rearrange the atomic makeup of the air and turn it into metal, making Devastator nearly indestructible. My anger was out of control at this point. Strangely, I could feel a new presence; it was kind and loving beyond measure. I then realized what the anger was and that my light element was divine in nature. I channeled all my remaining mana into my anger and prepared to release it.

I could find no weak points and nearly got caught in James's blast. Me and Perrin had joined up and tried attacking its head. I felt a surge of power and looked over at James. His body was glowing white and I could feel enormous anger coming from him. I turned to Perrin. She looked at me. "Run." I said. We turned and flew as fast as we could past James. Just in time, I tuned and watched as he fired thousands upon thousands of bolts of light from his chest into the sky. They arced over and rained destruction upon Devastator. I've seen videos of WWII and it looked like each bolt created an explosion with the force of a 1000 Lbs bomb. When the light fury finally ended, there was a crater where Devastator once stood, but not much else.

Meanwhile

Me and Jacy were having a tough time against these guys. Jacy was easily deflecting the explosives, but we had to continually dodge lightning. I decided now was as good a time as any to show off my strongest power. I held out my right hand and the air around it started shimmering. A blade formed in my hand, but not just any blade, a keyblade. It was about three feet long, the blade a bluish gray with a heart engraved near the hilt. The teeth were shaped like the Japanese Kanji for "Light". (Imagine two windows next to each other) the hilt was gold with two hand guards on either side that connected the top and bottom. The keychain was shaped like the rising sun with the Kanji for "fire" in it.

I flew at Bombshell and slashed with my keyblade, which left a huge gash in his arm. He yelled in pain and fired a grenade at me. I channeled my wind power through my blade and slashed, creating a gust of wind that blew the grenade at Shrapnel, blowing a hole in his armor. Then I focused my wind AND fire element into my keyblade, a visible air current and stream of fire swirled around it. I backed up and slashed at him. As I yelled "Firestorm!" There was a blast of superheated wind that melted away at Bombshells body until there was a puddle of slag on the ground. I smirked and turned to face Shrapnel but it seemed Jacy had things covered.

Me and Shrapnel stopped fighting as we watched Bombshell melt. "NOOOOO! O! O!" Shrapnel screamed and he turned to me and charged me.

"Wrong." I said. I force pushed him into the puddle of glowing slag, he screamed in pain and sprang up, firing two grenades at me. I just shook my head and pushed them back at his crotch. I watched with amusement as he flew up into the air. As he fell I got an idea. I held him in the air and used my element to press on every side of his head at once. His head imploded and he fell to the ground in a heap. I thought it was over, but he got up, jerking the whole way. He shakily raised his gun. I sighed and focused on a spell I learned when I served the darkness. I opened my mouth and a black and red fireball shot out, hitting Shrapnel, His vocal processor damaged more than it was, he let out a shattered scream as the fireball hit and went out, but the effect then took place, starting at the impact site, his body turned to stone, then crumbled to dust which scattered on the wind. I laughed at how easy that was, then felt something… Before I could tell what it was, a malevolent force broke into my mind and ripped control of my body from me.

I watched as my sister turned Shrapnel to dust with disgust on my face. "Dark magic… when will she ever learn?" Then something happened to her, Her scales turned a dark blue, her wings became huge, her face lengthened and her front arms sucked into her body. She then took off and slammed into Kenji, trying to rip out his throat. I focused my will at her and tried to connect. (Jacy, stop!) The mind that responded wasn't the Jacy I knew, it was like every bad memory and negative emotion she ever had gained control. It responded not in words, but in concepts, Thoughts that couldn't be described with words. What I got was pure malice. It seemed the dark magic had separated her positive and negative halves and had released the evil side. (Jacy, don't make me do this!) What she sent back could only be described as a very rude way of saying "Bring it."

Kenji had managed to break free of Jacy's Wyvern body and I rushed in and grabbed her by the wings, somersaulted and threw her to the ground. She got back up and with surprising speed, Grappled me with her legs and latched onto my throat, I could feel blood leaving me. (#%*& it, you made me!) I told her as I stabbed he in the leg with my tail blade. She screamed and let go of me. It was then that I assaulted her mind again, trying to subdue this evil half. While I was unsuccessful, I felt a small shard of light amidst all the darkness. I communicated with it (Don't worry, I'll get you out.)

I withdrew from the darkness and led her on a goose chase, all the while trying to figure out how to free her. Maybe if her light and dark halves are separated, combining them will restore balance, like Yin and Yang. She caught up with me once and I almost got my neck snapped before Perrin flew into the fray and, using her wing blade, left a deep gash in Jacy's side. As I broke free, I got an idea, but it was risky. I've never done anything like this before. I focused my light and shadow energy, turned and shot a gray beam of chaos at Jacy, the moment it hit, I assaulted her mind one last time. The chaos enrgy pumping through her was effecting her mind too, I separated it into light and shadow again and attacking the darkness with the light energy and enveloping the glimmer of light in shadow, I recombined the energy into chaos, perfectly blending Jacys light and dark sides. I stopped the beam and left her battle torn mind to observe the results.

She quickly resumed her normal form and passed out. As she fell, I teleported under her and caught her, carrying her to earth.

As she slept, we set up a camp and prepared a meal. When she woke up I turned to her. "Good, your up. You OK?"

"Yeah." She replied. "What happened?"

"I was right. That's what happened." I said. "After your dark spell ended, your evil side took over." I sent her a mental image of what she looked like.

"My god, what happened."

"Oh nothing." Kenji said "You just went berserk and tried to KILL US!"

"Easy Kenji." I said. "She wasn't in control of herself. Remember how Cynder was in A new beginning?"

"Yeah, Yeah." Kenji said. "Now I'm starting to understand how Sparx felt."

I turned back to Jacy "Anyway, promise me you won't use dark magic until we can find a way for you to control it?"

"Yeah." Jacy said. "There's no way I'm going to turn into that… thing again."

We set off the next day, We had to go around the bay created when Spyro and Cynder blew the dam to halt the destroyer. A few days later we were staring at our next obstacle and the place where Spyro and the others were being kept. The Peace Keeper desert.


	10. The rescue pt1

The Peace keeper desert. It was a vast jungle once, full of life. That of course was before the night of eternal darkness. When Malefor returned, He personally led the attack on the eastern dragon temple, reducing it and the surrounding realm to dust and ash. It's said by travelers that if you travel the dunes at night, you can still hear the anguished screams of jungle life burning before the dark masters gaze. Some even claim to see creatures wandering the dunes, but upon approach, they vanish to mist.

"This is where they're being kept, the temple ruins." Jacy said. So we set off across the scorching hills. The heat made flying easy, the updrafts pushing us up.

The temple was once home to the dragon's main fighting forces. When Malefor attacked, they valiantly fought to the last dragon, it's rumored the last soldier was forced to take his own life for Malefors amusement. The desert that remained was named after these dragons in their honor. Truly this was a place of death and misery.

We made quick time across the desert and we saw a castle on the horizon just as the sun touched the horizon. As we got closer, I noticed something wrong.

"Jacy? Are you sure this is the right place? I cant feel Spyro, his family, or the guardians."

Without turning back she said "I'm sure, there's a crystal inside the prison room that prevents any mana from being used. So it's likely you can't penetrate the barrier."

"Ok, but shouldn't there be guards? Someone attending the castle?"

This time she did look back. "Yes, there aren't? That's very strange." We got to the castle with no attacks, ambushes or enemy encounters of any kind. Jacy pulled the door from it's hinges and led the way to the prison room. When we got there, We came to a door made of voidstone.

"Crud." Jacy said. "I don't have the key."

"Stand aside, stand aside." Kenji said moving in front of the door. His keyblade materialized.

"Uh, Kenji?" I said "Just a guess, but I think that's a bit big for the keyhole."

"That's right, You never played Kingdom hearts, did you? Well watch and learn." He said as he pointed the blade at the keyhole. A beam of blue light shot from the tip of the keyblade and into the hole. We heard a click and the door cracked open with a hiss. Jacy pushed the door open the rest of the way and a swarm of insects flew out and started attacking us.

Everyone started swatting at the biting insects until Kenji released a blast of hot air. We heard a sound like "Rice Crispies" and the bugs fell to the ground, dead.

"Well that was gross." He said and walked into the room. A moment later we heard him say "Oh god."

The rest of us pushed our way into the room. When I got in, I saw what he was looking at and puked.

There were Selena, Fever, Zoulu and Spyder were nailed to the wall, Spyder, Cynder, Icera and Sei were on the ground, and the guardians were chained to the ceiling. Beyond that, it was impossible to tell who was who as their scales, horns and other features were lying on the ground amidst a patch of dried blood. The wing membranes were cut from all of them and long ago consumed by the insects. The children were in a state of advanced decomposition and I won't go any farther than that. The adults appeared to have been gutted and rats were crawling in and out of the slashes. The guardians were reduced to skeletons, judging by the bowls shaped dents in the floor under each one, I guessed acid had been the culprit.

Everyone had looks of shock and disgust, along with sadness. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. (This has to be a dream.) I told myself and I used my light to burn myself. (Definitely awake.) I thought.

"How could this have happened?" Kenji managed to get out.

"Ōumĭ Jiā is ruthless. It's likely after I betrayed him he killed them out of fear of rescue, either that or he was amused by it."

All the while, My anger was rising. In moments, it had reached the level necessary for a fury, but quickly passed that level. Within a minute, it physically hurt. I had never felt like this before, I just wanted it to stop. Then I got my wish.

Suddenly I was looking at myself. So was everyone else. They were saying things, but I was deaf. My body was surrounded by shadow and my eyes were glowing white. (Oh no.) I thought. All I could do was watch as Kenji grabbed me and tried to shake me out of it. Faster than I've seen anyone move, my fist connected with his chest and he flew through the wall to fast to see anything more than a blur. Then I started floating and the shadows enveloped everything until there was a blinding flash of light.

When the light faded, I was back in my own body. I could hear a thundering roar. All around me was dust, I couldn't see anything. I could feel sand under my feet, not stone. Confused, I flew up, trying to escape the dust, but it only got thicker, so I tried to find the edge, after a while I shot out of the dust and after flying a ways looked back. What I saw was the most horrible sight I ever saw. A mushroom cloud.

"No." I said. "I didn't." In the darkness, I had created a nuclear explosion. I knew why I was standing on sand now. The castle was gone. Along with my friends and family. I had lost all hope and will. I stopped flapping my wings and submitted to gravity. How long I fell, I didn't care. All I remember was pain, then nothing.

When I woke, I was in a room that was strangely familiar. It looked like something out of the Spyro games. Then the voice behind me jogged my memory. "Welcome, young dragon."

I turned around and came face to face with someone I never thought I'd see.

"Ignitus?"

"Yes, it is I." He said. "I brought you here because it is the time for you to know certain things."

I laid on the ground and turned away from him. "I don't care anymore."

"Oh?" He said "And why would that be?"

"You're the frikkin chronicler, you figure it out."

"I know you don't mean that James. Yes, I do know what you did, that's part of what I want to talk to you about. You see, you can save them."

I raised my head to look at him, tears streaming down my face "How Ignitus? Even if there were a way to bring the dead back, the only thing left of their bodies is a cloud of atoms!"

"I'm not talking about raising the deceased, but preventing their deaths."

I put my head down again. "Just one problem, Only the purple dragon can use dragon time, and thanks to me, we're one short right now."

Ignitus came and laid down next to me. "That is what I brought you here to talk to you about. You are aware of you're telepathy by now correct? That too is an ability that previously only the purple dragon can wield. You, James are a very special dragon."

"So what? You're saying when I wake up my scales are gonna be purple?" I said sarcastically.

Ignitus chuckled "No. Let me tell you something you my find hard to believe. 18 years ago, a dragon couple had a single egg after their first clutch. Before the egg could hatch though, an evil we still don't understand came to the dragon realms, to protect their egg, they used powerful magic to send it through time and space to a safer place. This egg went to the past when humans still roamed the earth. It found the pair of humans that were the closest genetically to it's parents and transformed into a human egg. You can figure out the rest from there. This egg, James, was you."

My head shot up and I stared at his steel blue eyes. "Wait, what? That's impossible!"

"Let me show you something." He said and a book floated off a shelf, came to us, and opened. "The first page is about your time as an egg, but after that," The page turned and the words were English. "Your story is human. Go ahead, look." I flipped through the pages and glanced through and saw many major events in my life as well as things I long forgotten. Then, I turned the page and was surprised at the words, they moved from right to left and were constantly changing from English to draconian. I looked up at Ignitus. "What does this mean?"

"This is when you came back to your homeworld. You are unlike your friends, who are humans transformed to dragons. You are 100% dragon. The reason the words change is that your past, present and future all bend back into one another. A vicious cycle. You have done something that will affect your future self; you will then travel back in time, and start a chain of events that causes the cycle to repeat over and over into infinity. I have seen your dreams James. You know exactly what I'm talking about. What I can tell you is the cycle will have a positive effect. After the cycle is complete, the pages will return to normal."

"But Ignitus," I said, "What is the effect of the cycle?"

He closed the book and as it returned to the shelf, he said "The world's salvation."

"Ok," I said "But I still have another question."

"And what would that be, young dragon?"

"Who are my parents?"

Ignitus leaned so he was at eye level with me. "Think about everything I've told you thus far, you already know the answer."

I thought about everything he said and nothing came to mind until I remembered what he said about my shared powers with the purple dragon. I let out a deep breath. "Spyro and Cynder."

"You inherited you're mothers wit I see." Ignitus said. "Now do you see how you can prevent the deaths of your friends and family?"

I looked at him. "I-I think so, but I don't know how to use dragon time."

"It is quite easy." Ignitus said. Instead of focusing your mana through space, focus it through space."

"Ok, I think I can do it." I said. "Is there anything else I should know?"

Ignitus looked at the floor for a moment before looking back at me. "There was something I needed to say to Spyro, but never found the right time. I would like you to tell him when the time is right for me. Can you do that James?"

"Of course." I assured him. Then everything went black. The last thing I heard was Ignitus say "That's a good grandson."


	11. The Rescue Pt2

When I woke up, I looked around and saw a mile wide crater where the castle, and my friends used to be. I sat there for a while, just taking in everything Ignitus had told me. After a while, I got up and concentrated all my will on the past. Then everything went grayscale and I saw another me come out of myself and lay down, after a while, he, I should say I, flew up into the air, then backward into the now fully formed mushroom cloud, I took off after myself and got there just as there was a blinding flash, when it faded, I was in the room with my dark self and my friends and who I now knew to be my step-family.

Just before Dark James triggered the explosion, I resumed time and with a huge amount of effort, teleported Perrin, Jacy, Kenji and Ryan a few miles away. We all reappeared in the desert as the flash appeared, followed by a mushroom cloud, moments later, there was a thundering roar as the shockwave ripped across the desert. Everyone stared in awe at what they were seeing. I saw what I was looking for, a tiny dot came flying out of the cloud, stopped, then fell to the ground, my past self had gone to see Ignitus, thereby starting the chain of events over again.

"What was that?" Ryan said.

"Yeah, sorry about that." I said, causing the others to wheel around.

"YOU did that?" Perrin exclaimed incredulously.

"Yeah, when certain dragons anger or sadness spirals of control, their darkness is exposed, they become like a berserker, unable to tell friend from foe and strike out at whatever or whoever they feel caused their misfortune. Only after their anger subsides do they return to normal."

"So wait," Jacy said. "If were out of control, how'd you save us?"

"Well, long story short, after finding out I killed you, I passed out-"

"But were alive." Kenji pointed out.

"As always you have a firm grasp of the obvious Kenji, now can I finish? Anyway I passed out and woke up in the White isle."

Kenji and Ryan gasped, but Jacy who had only played Dawn of the dragon, and Perrin who had never played a Spyro game in her life were unreactive. I explained. "The White isle is where the Chronicler resides. He's a dragon of immeasurable knowledge and wisdom, his job is to record the history of the world and watch over the realms, only intervening in times of great darkness. After Spyro and Cynder defeated Malefor, The late fire guardian, Ignitus became the next chronicler."

"So, I was talking to him, and he told me… I'll tell you later. I need to tell Spyro and his family too."

"In case you hadn't noticed, Ōumĭ Jiā and his #^(%!*& minions killed them," Kenji said "No offence Jacy."

"None taken" she replied.

"And now because of you, Their bodies are gone."

"Seriously Kenji, will you let me finish? Anyways, Ignitus also told me I could use dragon time and taught me how to use it. Now I'm done."

Kenji instantly let loose the skepticisms he'd been holding back. "But only the purple dragon can use dragon time."

"Ignitus said I was a special dragon."

Kenji had a look that said he didn't believe me. Alright, watch this I said. I picked up a handful of sand and threw it, then stopped time for all of us. The world went black and white and the floated, frozen in a cloud above us. "Now do you believe me?" I said, my voice echoing in the suddenly perfectly still world. After I was satisfied everyone had accepted it, I resumed time and the sand fell on our heads.

Now, If you need any more proof, we need to go this way, come on. I took off toward my past self. When we got close enough to see myself on the ground, Perrin exclaimed "There are two of you?!"

"No." I said. "I'm actually from the future. This is your James, who is about to go back in time to teleport you guys to where we just came from, saving you from the explosion." Even as I finished, my past self vanished into thin air. "Told ya." I said.

We landed at the edge of the crater and I turned back to my companions. "Everybody ready to save Spyro? We simply go back in time to before they were killed and save them before returning to our time." Everyone gathered around me and I reversed time. We watched as I reappeared, sat there for a moment before collapsing, a moment later and I flew into the sky. I created a cloak of shadows around us to shield us from the flash. When it was over, I dropped the cloak and we were in the prison room. I watched as everyone moved away from Dark James and the shadows vanished, then my past self threw up in reverse, which almost made me throw up again. Then we all left the room and the door reappeared.

After a while, the bodies' condition started improving. Before long, The children were alive. The world was mute but you could tell they were in agony. It seemed they were kept alive to wither away and mourn the deaths of the adults. Then, creatures I've never seen before came into the room. If you've seen the Lord of the rings movies, these things made the orcs look like fashion models. They came in and un-cut the adults stomachs and they sprang to life, writhing on the floor in pain. The scales then began flying off the ground and onto the dragons as the creatures un-scaled them one by one. Then, the horns, crests and other such features were restored.

That left only the skeletons hanging by the ceiling. We had to wait a while before the creatures came in again, when they did, they brought three vats with them and placed them in the dents I thought were acid burns. Then I watched in horror as I realized what happened to the guardians. A while after the creatures left, what I assumed was a few days their cause of death became apparent. If you've seen any of the "Mummy" movies then you're familiar with Scarab beetles. These creatures took much longer to devour the guardians. We watched as over the course of what was most likely a week they screamed in agony as the beetled fed, Spyro and his, my family were forced to endure the whole thing, unable to help, unable to do anything but cry.

When the guardians were whole again, the creatures returned and left with the pots. I gave it a few seconds, then dropped us back into normal time. "Ok Kenji, use your keyblade to get them down, Perrin, take guard. Ryan, look for that mana blocking crystal. Jacy get far away from here. If you come in contact with yourself, it could mess up the whole timeline, and we may never find Spyro in the first place."

My family and the guardians heads perked up at my voice and as my friends wet to their appointed tasks, Spyro spoke first. "James?! How'd you get here?"

It's a long, long story. But don't worry, I'll tell you in a few weeks." This obviously confused them. "Hey, is everyone Ok? No serious injuries yet?"

"No." Cynder said "The worst is the children." I looked over to see their body weight supported by meat hooks that pierced their wing membranes.

"Don't worry." I told them as I got on two legs and very carefully lifted each of them off the hooks and set them on the floor. "Kenji, how're you doing with those shackles?"

"I've got Cyril, Terrador, Icera and Sei." He said.

I Looked over, They were all on the ground, they were watching everything that was going on, but weren't getting up. "Hey, you guys Ok?"

"We'll be fine." Terrador said. "The constant torture has left us drained."

Suddenly I felt two things I hoped we wouldn't have to encounter. "Kenji! Work faster, we've got company! Everyone else to me!"

We all waited in the center off the room, My light breath charged, Ryan had some sort of huge flowers on his shoulders with spines coming out and multiple bladed vines growing off him. Perrin was next to me. Suddenly the door flew off its hinges straight at us. I let loose my blast, melting the door and as I swung it left to right, it disintegrated the wall and triggered countless screams. Then they swarmed us.

I could sense thousands of them, an entire army against three dragons! I used a combination of my breath attacks and melee combat alongside Perrin, who's graceful, yet powerful and unbelievably fast moves were decimating their forces. Ryans flowers shot a storm of needles into the crowd which appeared to be toxic as the creatures dropped like flies. When the needles were gone, the flowers flew off and exploded in the crowd with a cloud of noxious gas which killed dozens more. He then raced into the fray, vines and claws slashing.

Just when it looked like the battle was turning our way, more of them came rushing in and I realized what they were doing, they were going to put so many bodies in the room we wouldn't be able to attack! I retreated and charged my light breath. Perrin and Ryan saw the flare and ran behind me. Once they were clear, I cleaned the room of any bodies and the next wave. We ran forward to meet the next one when I felt her.

Suddenly the roof was torn off the building and disappeared and we looked up to se Jacy (The evil one from this time) "Kenji?" I asked "How're you doing?"

"Hang on… done!" He said behind me.

"Alright, take my place!" I told him as I took off after Jacy. Just as she launched her force blast, I dematerialized myself, turning to a column of black smoke that entered her body. Once inside, I forced my will over the hers and grabbed control of her body, then I turned and flew her away from the battle I had to think, because if I just left her out in the desert, the timeline would change. She would never fight us on the plains of Dormanzt and join us, then we would never rescue Spyro and the others… God, now I see why the chronicler told Spyro time is not to be used without the utmost care. As I was taking Jacy away from the battle, I wondered the others were doing.

I was starting to get tired, controlling all these vines was taxing on my mana so I had to drop most of them. Suddenly, a huge monster was on top of me, Just as he was going to bring his sword down, There was a flash of pink and he no longer had a head. I looked over and Perrin was next to me, her C shaped tail blade dripping with black blood. I shoved the corpse off me and got to my feet. "Thanks." I said before turning to the army.

"No prob." She said. Ok, I thought (1000 down, 5000 to go.) and indeed there were that many, the creatures went on for at least a mile. I realized why the force was so big, now that all of Ōumĭ Jiās enemies were in one place he would stop at nothing to ensure their demise. Then I felt something I never felt before, It was as if the Jungle were still alive, I could feel every plant, insect and animal that lived here before Malefor razed it to the ground. I could also feel every living thing in the desert for a mile. I was at one with nature. I shook myself to clear my head and returned to the battle.

After a while I became to tired to fight. Perrin was out of steam too and Kenji was getting there. We had expended way to much mana to fast. When all this was over, I would need combat training. Maybe I would go to that dragon school James was talking about. I looked around as Kenji fell to his knee. Out of strength, the keyblade vanished. The monsters surrounded us and put a sword to each of our necks, Including the prisoners. One of them said something in a garbled language but from the way he said it I guessed it was "Any last words?" The hopelessness of the situation combined with what they had done to The prisoners before caused my anger to explode out of control. I leapt at the creature about to execute me, but he slashed my chest, sending me to the ground. I looked down at my own blood and my anger rose, I tried to control it, but lost. Before I knew what was happening I was hovering in the air. A creature tried to kill me, but an invisible fore sent him flying back. I looked over and saw Jacy (The good one) hovering above us. She nodded to me and I released all my anger at once. Just then I felt the life and ex life of the desert like never before. I had found my Nature fury.

The ground started rumbling and suddenly countless bamboo trees sprouted from the ground and impaled hundreds of monsters. Various other plants rose from the sand, some of them attacking the monsters. The sand under our feet became fertile soil and grasses and weeds sprouted. I couldn't believe my eyes, The jungle was coming to life! As I watched, the corpses of the slain monsters liquefied to a green goop and reformed as bodies of various jungle creatures. We and the remaining monsters watched as hundreds of balls of light floated out of the ground. I reached out and touched one and suddenly, my mind was shared with a jungle cat. I withdrew my hand and the mind vanished. Then, the orbs flew into the chests of the animal corpses, which sprang to life and bounded away. Somehow my fury had restored the jungle to it's former state for about a mile, creating a large oasis in the desert. The final thing to happen was several red and green crystals sprouted from the ground. I smiled, the battle had just turned to our favor.


	12. The Rescue pt3

James had done something to Jacy (evil) and made her run away, which left me, Perrin, and Kenji to defend Spyro, his family and the guardians. Somehow, I had unleashed my nature fury, which created a large oasis in the middle of this desert. Several red and green crystals appeared too, we quickly smashed them and felt our vitality return as the shards melted and bonded with our bodies, imparting their energy to us. I turned to the others to see a large winged thing approaching. It appeared to be a guivre, a close relative to the wyvern, but stronger as it has poison breath, they are extremly dull however, having the intelligence of a mouse. While fighting on the ground, I watched as it picked up a weakened pink dragoness and took off with her. I finished the group attacking me and took off after them.

I quickly closed on them, the guivre saw me and tried to evade me, but I was too fast for it, I climbed high into the air. It looked back and not seeing me, believed it had lost me and resumed normal flight. Then I dropped out of the sky and latched onto it's wings with my wing claws. It's wings were pinned to it's side and we plummeted. I tore at his legs until he released his captive, but not before he gave a sceam into her face, dousing her with it's toxix breath. "NO!" I yelled and bit it's throat and snapped it's neck. I then dove after the dragon.

I caught her just before we hit the ground. I laid her in the sand. She was coughing and her eyes had filmed over. She wouldn't last until we got her to Cynder, I had to do something here. I got several seeds out of my bag and grew them into several plants which I ground up into a powerful antidote. I hoped it would work on guivre breath. I mixed it with the runny nectar of another plant to make a potion for her.

I turned back and gasped, her scales had turned a shade of white, she was almost gone. I carefully poured the drink into her mouth and covered her mouth and nose until she swallowed. After a minute of nervous anticipation, her color returned to normal and her eyes cleared. When she looked at me, I saw her eyes and my heart skipped a beat. Being a human, I never thought I'd say this, but she was the most beatutiful dragon I'd ever seen. When I tried to talk, my mouth wouldn't cooperate. "Are-are you o-ok? That guivre got good you pretty. I mean, you pretty. I mean it got you good." I had an embarrased smile on my face.

The dragoness was trying not to laugh at my blunder and were it not for her pink scales, I would have sworn she was blushing. "I'm fine." She said Thank you for rescueing me, my names Selena."

"Ryan." I said I noticed Selena looking me over. "Is something wrong?"

"Your paws, they look just like James's" she said.

"Uhh, yeah." I said, looking down at my paws. "All us dragon-humans have them." (we've got to think of a better term than that.) I thought.

"You're a human too?!" She said increduously.

"Yep, there are five of us. Anyway, are you strong enough to fly?"

She got up shakily and jumped into the air, she wasn't strong enough though and fell to the ground. She landed on her feet and started to fall over before I caught her. Our faces were extremely close. We looked at each other, I could see every feature of every scale and noticed she was definitly blushing this time. So was I for that matter. We moved away to a more comforatable distance. "Maybe we should walk" I suggested. So we turned back to the oasis and headed back.

I had taked control of Jacy's body and led her far out into the desert. Once far away from the battle, I left her body and turned to face her. "You'll pay for that!" She screamed and launched black lightning at me. I dematerialized and the lightning wen't right through me. (She'll never learn.) I thought and tried a new move, I flew at her and loosed a stream of shadow flames from my mouth, they enveloped Jacy and when they cleared, she was temporaraly paralyzed, took advantage of this to hit her with a blast of light that sent her into the sand and knocked her out. I left her there and headed back to the battle.

Halfway there, I saw an oasis where the castle was. (dang, a lot can happen when your away.) I thought. I flew over the jungle and saw enemys being attacked by jungle creatures. Then I found a group that was approaching My family from behind. "Not a chance." I muttered as I swooped in and grabbed on of them and took off again, raising the alarm to the rest, who began firing shortbows at me, I dematerialized and let them hit my captive before I dropped him and launched a ball of light into the group. It exploded, killing the rest.

I landed back at the castle just as the rest of the forces were retreating, running into the desert in all directions. "Is everyone ok?" I asked.

"Not everyone." Terrador said, walking up to me. "Selena was carried off by some creature and your green friend took off after her." I tried to extend my mind to se if they were ok, but after a certain distance, All I got was huge amounts of oxytocin. (a love horomone) I simled "They're alright." I said.

Terrador gave me a funny look. "How do you know?"

"Let's just say I've picked up a few things since You guys vanished."

After a while Ryan and Selena walked into the room and Cynder ran over to them, Spyro not far behind. "Selena, Are you ok?" Cynder asked.

"Yeah, When Ryan hurt that thing, it poisoned me, but Ryan was able to make an antidote. Then he shared enough of his energy with me that I could get back." Cynder and Spyro looked relieved.

I reached out with my mind and found Jacy (good) and called her back. Then I turned to Spyro and the others. "Well, I think it's time for introductions." I generated a hovering ball of light that floated in front of each person as I introduced them. "For those who don't know, This is Spyro, Cynder, Their children: Fever, Selena and Zoulu, Icera, Cynders mother, Sei, her brother, Spyder, who is engaged to Fever, And the guardians Terrador and Cyril."

"And these are my friends, who are actually human, like me." This got surprised reactions from everyone but Selena. "This is Ryan. His Element is called "Nature" and lets him control plants, as you saw. This is my wife, Perrin." I gave her a quick kiss on the cheeck before moving on. "This is my cousin, Kenji. He can control fire and wind, as well as some special magic and a weapon called a keyblade, which you've seen." I felt Jacy's presence just out of sight. "And this is Jacy." I said as she flew into veiw and landed next to me.

Spyro leapt at her roaring and tried to take her head, but I blocked him with a wall of shadow. "Guys, relax! She's on our side now."

Spyro turned to me glaring. "How can you say that when she attacked us not five minutes ago?!"

"That was the Jacy from this time period, This is Jacy from your future." To prove that I wasn't crazy, I threw a rock into the air and stopped time. "In our time, we arrived too late to save you, so using dragon time we trveled to the past. Jacy's my sister and I trust her. All I can say for now is she was under the control of someone much stronger than Malefor, but we broke his hold on her." I let time reume and the rock fell to the stone floor with a clack.

Spyro's expression had changed to confusion. "But how can you use dragon time and that sheild thing?"

"Like I told Terrador, I've picked up a few things. I think I'll need training from Cynder now too. I'll explain everything in a couple of weeks when we get back to the temple."

"But it won't take but a few days to get back." Icera said.

"For you, yes. But we have to return to our own time. Speaking of which, is everyone ready to go?"

Everyone said yes exept Ryan. "Actually James, I'd like to stay here and get to know someone."

I thought for a minute about the risks of leaving him in the past. As long as he didn't come in contact with anyone who knew him or himself before the Ryan from this time travels to the past, it should be fine. I told him about the risks and what he would have to do to avoid them, then from their point of veiw, Jacy, Parrin, Kenji and myself vanished into thin air as I activated dragon time.


	13. The dark deed

It had been three months since the rescue of Spyro, his family and the guardians. I had learned more about myself than I had ever thought possible. The person I thought I was never really existed, instead I had heroic blood and a greater role in this world than I had imagined, but more of that later.

Everything was settling back down, true, there were still skirmishes with Ōumǐ Jiā's forces, but now that everyone was back they were annoyances at best.

School was going well, When I showed Spyro my shadow powers, he was extremely surprised and added Cynder as a teacher. I had learned to control both my light and shadow furies and how to wield light and shadow simultaneously. Jacy's force element and Ryan's nature element were as unique as mine and so were given special tutelage. Ryan had pretty much mastered his element and Jacy was getting stronger every day. She could now use her element with the same dexterity as her own hands. Ironically enough; Spyro became their student to learn these new elements. He was learning, but at a slow pace due to their arcane nature. Jacy was under the watchful eye of various scholars and spellcasters as she learned to harness her dark magic with being corrupted. Beyond his strange appearance, Kenji was not much different than other dragons and so was in the normal classes. Ryan was spending all his spare time wooing Selena with moderate success. From a third perspective, it appeared she liked him back but wasn't aware of it.

One day, when I was sparring with Cynder, Spyro judging the competition I called the match short.

"Spyro, Cynder, there's something I need to talk to you about. Meet me in my room with your kids in ten minutes."

I returned to my room to find Perrin there, looking through my books. In addition to the ones I owned as a human, I had collected several about the history of the dragon realms. "Hey, Perrin, how's the medical training?"

She looked up at the book she was reading "Meh, I got training at Neo north, that city you found me in so there's not much I have to learn."

"Alright." I said "Listen, Spyro, his family, Jacy and Kenji are coming over in a minute and I need you all to hear something, Alright?"

Just then there was a knock on the door. "Speak of the devil." I said and opened it. They all came in, Spyder accompanied her fiancé, Fever.

"Alright, What'd you call us for?" Kenji asked.

"Hang on, I sent a message to Sparx, he needs to hear this too as he's Spyros step brother. Wanna listen to some music?" I walked over and plugged my MP3 player into the homemade speaker Selena, fever, Zoulu and myself made and we listened to my collection of songs from the Spyro games I downloaded. XD After the adult Cynder theme was over, Sparx flew in through the window.

"Hey James, you called- whoa, it's a party!"

"Alright there's something I need to tell you that has to do with all of you." I said. "You remember that day we all saved you from the eastern temple ruins? Well before we traveled to the past, We came in to see you dead from torture, my darkness took over and I killed everyone. When I snapped out of it, I passed out and woke up on the White isle.

This got Spyro, Cynder and Sparxs attention. "Did, did you se him? Did you see Ignitus?" Spyro asked.

"Yes." I told him "And he told me something that he said not to tell anyone until I thought you were ready. First off, I figure only dragons that have had direct contact with the convexity realm can wield it and have a "dark" form. I've never been there, yet I became "Dark James" when I killed everyone, so that means I must have inherited it. He also told me of how you two lost a silver egg the very day I was conceived."

After a minute of puzzling it over, Cynder looked at me as if she'd never seen me before. "You mean you're… Oh my god." Then she ran over and hugged me. "Oh, thank the ancestors! I never thought I'd see you again! Spyro, remember that egg we lost in the portal all those years ago?"

"Yeah… no way, it's you?" He said.

"Yep, that's how I can use two elements."

"Wait, what's going on?" Perrin asked.

"Honey, Spyro and Cynder are my birth parents. 19 years ago they lost my egg in a portal and it ended up in our world, transformed into a human egg, and implanted inside DeAnna."

"So, wait. You're not my brother?" Jacy asked.

"Not genetically, no. We're technically step siblings."

Perrin had a shocked expression on her face. "So, what does that make Laura?"

"Don't worry; she has the genetics of my human body so she's 100% human." Perrin breathed a sigh of relief.

My brother and sisters had mixed expressions. Zoulu was confused, Fever looked like he was restraining a laugh and Selena looked like she was going to throw up.

"Hey, Selena," I asked "Are you ok?"

"No." She said. "You're my brother and I-I was …attracted to you!"

"WHAT?!" Perrin yelled.

"Perrin, calm down." I told her. "I turned her down and we agreed to be friends, alright? I don't want there to be bad blood between you and this family too." I turned to Selena, "And Selena? You did nothing wrong, no one knew at that time and nothing happened, alright?"

Selena got a hold of herself and nodded. I turned to Spyro. "There's one more thing Ignitus said. Spyro, he was more than a friend to you, there was a reason he was in the forest that day you left, he was watching over his son."

Spyros face was pale and he sat down. Cynder went to him "Hey, you ok?"

"Yeah…yeah. I'm fine." He said. "I just always knew there was something between us." He looked at me "Did he say who my mother was?"

"No, that was the last thing he said before I woke up. Now that we know he's your father, we could probably find your mom by asking around though."

Kenji spoke up this time. "So… if you came here because your parents are dragons, does that mean our parents are…"

"No." I said. "There is one more thing I need to confess. I've already told Ryan this and he was mad at first, but my motive settled him down. Do you remember those dreams I told you about where I watch you die? Well I saw who he was and couldn't tell you."

"You knew all this time?" Jacy said. "He, no wonder he was mad. Who was it?"

"Jacy, that's not why he was mad, It was… me."

Everyone in the room got silent. After an excruciating minute Perrin was as the first to speak. "You? You killed me? How the hell could you do that?!"

"To save the world!" I yelled. Now everyone had the look they had when I first arrived in the dragon realms, like I was crazy. "Ōumǐ Jiā is far too powerful for me, or Even Spyro to take on alone." I said "So I had to bring two people I trusted above all else and two people I knew with a lot of knowledge about the games here to help. When all this is over, I can send you back if you want, but I need your help, please?"

Perrin, Jacy and Kenji looked at each other for a moment, then one by one they agreed to help. After everyone had left, I turned to Perrin. "I've gotta go now."

"Where to? She asked.

"Where else? Your world." I responded.

"Oh. Your going to do it now, huh?"

"Yeah." I turned to the window and gathered a ball of light energy in my right hand and a ball of shadow in my left. I shot the two beams and where they hit there was a flash and a vortex appeared. It was white with black rings that started at the center and grew outward. I turned back to Perrin, "See you on the other side."

She frowned. "Worst. Joke. Ever." I shrugged and transformed into a human before stepping through.

When I got out, I was in downtown Sherman. Outside Academy to be precise. I walked in and ignoring the looks I got at showing up in a Kimono and a sword strapped to my side. I then went to the sports section and got a black jumpsuit and trench coat. I went to the changing room and put it on, I attached my tanto to the inside of the coat on my back, sticking out of the collar. I then went out and went up to the gun counter. The man looked at me the way anyone would look at a guy dressed like he's in the matrix and has a sword in his coat. ""Can I… help you?"

I looked into his eyes. "No." then I used shadows to bind him, I teleported behind the counter and got a small 9mm. and a home defense shotgun along wit a box of ammo for each. I then teleported to the roof and loaded them before continuing. I opened another portal to my house. Once there made my way to my sisters room. I just wanted to get it over with and took aim. She moved just as I pulled the trigger. I don't really want to get into details about the goriness, if that's what your looking for, go watch Saw. I heard something behind me and turned to find myself, two knives in my hands. Past me ran at me and I teleported away.

I opened another portal and went to where Ryan told me he lived. After walking the streets for a while I saw someone that looked like him. I walked up to him "Are you Ryan?" he turned around and in a flash I drew my tanto and ran it through him. He fell limply to the ground and I turned to face my past self. "It's your destiny." I told myself and teleported out of view.

My next stop was Kenji's. I hid in the bathroom until I heard myself taking to Kenji, I then stepped out and drew my pistol, I shot Kenji and felt an elbow in my gut, quickly followed by a kick to the face. The gun flew out of my hand and when I looked up, my past self was holding it. "You can't kill me, this is our job. Otherwise there' s no hope against Ōumĭ Jiā." I told him. My past self dropped the gun and I stood up and opened a portal.

Once through I patted myself on the back for getting the accuracy right. I was in the exact room I needed. I drew my tanto and approach Perrin from behind. It broke my hearth to have to do this myself, but there was no other way. She turned in time to see me, then the tanto. "What are you doing here? Wait! What?! No-" I grabbed her and quickly slit her throat. "I'm sorry." I whispered.

Just then my past self ran in and saw Perrin on the floor, dying. He ran to her She looked up at him and thinking it was me, whispered "Why?" before passing on.

I knew he was about to shoot me and dodged before he even raised his hand. I then bound him in shadow. "Tsk Tsk. James, we both know you know about time-space enough to know what'll happen if you kill me. Besides. I've got to finish here." I told him, trying to make myself sound as cruel as I remembered, but in reality, I wanted to cry as much as he did.

M past self spit on me, just like before. "You bastard! How could you even think of doing this? First Perrin, and now you'll finish?! She's just a two year old!"

I knew I couldn't kill my daughter and had other plans for her. "It's for the best." I told him and left to get Laura. I picked her up and raised the shotgun and blew out the window, then ran out to my parents house. It was a year after MY death, so they were understandably shocked to see me there, covered in blood with a shotgun and sword, holding my two-year-old daughter. I didn't want Laura to grow up with the wrong impression of her father, so I twisted the truth. I used the same cover story I used on my friends after I woke from the dreams. "I couldn't stop him." I said. "Kenji, Perrin and a friend of mine is dead, I'm next and I don't want Laura growing up in a dysfunctional family. I'm hereby transferring custody of Laura to you.

Very confused, they took Laura and invited me inside. "Sorry," I told them "But I've got a date with the reaper." And with that I turned and ran with all my dragon speed away from the house, in thirty seconds I was a half-mile away. "Last stop." I said to myself as I opened a portal to a year ago.

When I got through, I 'picked up' another handgun and found myself easily enough. I was at home alone, writing a Spyro story. Not remembering how I died, I decided to wing it. I kicked the door open, picked myself up by the collar, and pointed the gun to my head. My past self screamed something that sounded like "What the (bad word)", but I wasn't sure. I just said, "You have a destiny to fulfill;" then I sent him a mental image of this scene from his point of view, but with me as a dragon. Then I pulled the trigger.

I came out of the portal back in my room, transformed back to dragon form and slumped down onto the bed, exhausted and ready to puke.

"So?" Perrin asked.

"Horrible."

"Any trouble killing the people you're closest to?" She said with venom in her voice.

I ran to the window and threw up, quickly apologized down to Volteer and went back to bed and curled up.

"That bad huh?" She asked.

I groaned at her, not having the will to make a comeback.

To my surprise, She laid down behind me and curled her body around mine. "Still, I know why you had to do it and we're still alive. So I'm not angry. As long as you send me back like you promised if I want to go back, I'll be fine with it."

I looked back at her, "Thanks." I said, and moved in to kiss her, but she backed away. "You just threw up, remember?"

"Oh , sorry."

The next day I felt a hundred percent better. I prepared to go to school, but Volteer pulled me aside in the hallway. "James, there is something I must implore of you."

"Hey, I said I was sorry about the other day, I did something I wasn't comfortable with and it didn't agree with me."

"Compose yourself. That's not what I hailed you for. The other guardians and myself have a task for you."

"Alright, what is it?" I asked.

"You are to retrieve the new fire guardian."


	14. A new mission

Life was great. I had money, I had my girl, I had my car. Street racing sure has its perks. I remember my friend and mechanic died in a shooting and dedicated this race to him. Going through the Rockies in the dead of night. My Dodge Viper could handle the turns and with its jet black paint with double crimson stripes down the middle that were invisible until the light hit it just right I could turn the lights off and sneak past the competition with out them having a chance to see and block me.

I was well ahead of the pack and was enjoying the open road. Suddenly a streak that blotted out the light came from above and swept across the road a few hundred yards off. Just as I got there, the path the darkness took exploded in a fiery conflagration. The blast jarred the car and made me loose control. When the retina burn faded The dash was lit up from the glow above and behind me. Ahead was a sea of green glowing with a red tinge from my colored headlights. There was a jarring that made it feel like my brain was coming out of my eye sockets, brief, blinding pain, then nothing…

I was back in my room, trying to sleep with Perrin next to me, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop think about what had just happened the previous day.

Volteer pulled me aside in the hallway. "James, there is something I must implore of you."

"Hey, I said I was sorry about the other day, I did something I wasn't comfortable with and it didn't agree with me."

"Compose yourself. That's not what I hailed you for. The other guardians and myself have a task for you."

"Alright, what is it?" I asked.

"You are to retrieve the new fire guardian."

I was late.

Of all the classes to get detention; my former best language/reading! I was great in 2010, but here in the distant future, English is a forgotten memory. Instead the dragons had a language all their own. Needless to say, Me, Kenji and Ryan were flunking and today of all days, when I had a meeting with guardians apparently so important I couldn't even tell Perrin, I went and got detention!

To get there as quick as possible I forwent the crowded halls and risked teleporting where I couldn't see, through the wall. It worked. I plummeted toward the ground, landing on all fours with an audible _thud_ and running through the main doors with my legs feeling like they were shredded from the impact. soon arrived at the staircase that led down to the guardians' quarters. I soon arrived at the stairs that led down to the guardians chambers.

I had never been down there before and as soon as I stepped foot in the stairs, I felt like I couldn't tell up from down. I must have gone twenty stories when we came out to… sunshine? I went to a window and found we were in the chamber at the top of the temple! "What the?"

Terrador came over. "This was built long ago to be a capital building by the moles and dragons, back when the world was divided into warring nations. They built that staircase to lead "down" to the top floor. The ancients took the reason with them to the grave however.

Once I had collected myself, I finally spoke "Sorry I'm late, school and all." The annoyance on their faces vanished at that and they all stood up for the meeting to take place: Cyril, Terrador, Volteer, Spyro, Cynder and another dragon I didn't recognize with a large black crystal around his neck. Spyro stood unusually close to him.

The stranger spoke first, "So, you are alone, no one else knows of this meeting?"

"No, I can only sense us, in that way the detention worked out as a perfect alibi."

"Good-" he said as he closed his eyes, the crystal began to glow brilliant blue and his appearance changed, he appeared to age and his horns morphed, starting closest to the crystal and rippling out his scales dulled and faded to a gray that seemed to glow from within. When the transformation was complete Ignitus opened his eyes "-Now we can begin."

I tried to conceal my shock, and did a horrible job, and asked the obvious, "So why are you here?

Ignitus chuckled, "Because; little one, I've observed all the dragons of this age and have found one who I think will make a fine fire guardian. The others have done likewise. We want you, James, to test them."

The shock on my face came back twofold. "Me? Why me? Why not Spyro?"

Spyros voice contained disappointment but his face practically glowed as he looked at Ignitus "Apparently Igni-Dad thinks I'm too powerful, the tests would be impossible to complete as half consists of a duel. Plus you proved yourself capable in the rescue." He looked at me and I heard his voice in my head [Lucky.]

I tried shrugging at him and found that since my feet were on the floor I just made a weird jerking motion. I collected myself and said "So what am I supposed to do?"

Volteer spoke up "Ever since Ignitus's cessation, we tarrying guardians have had an exceedingly, exceptionally, excessively, exorbitantly, extraordinarily, highly, hugely, immensely, immoderately, inordinately-"

Thankfully Terrador cut him off. "Volteer, you're rambling again." Volteer gave him a dirty look and let Terrador do the talking. "Anyway, Since Ignitus's passing; it's been harder on the remaining guardians. Spyro has stepped in to help from time to time, but we've asked enough of him and as much as I hate to admit it, we're getting to old for this."

I nodded "So it's not just a fire guardian, is it? You want me to find the next generation of guardians. So what are you going to do in your retirement?"

"Oh, were not retiring." Cyril told me. "We've decided to become a kind of council that people can come to with questions and requests."

But what if they have children or something like that, do they come too?"

"Of course!" they all said.

"Alright, but what's the test?"

"It differs for each element." Ignitus said. "The fire guardian must prove to have leadership abilities."

Cyril spoke up. "The Ice guardian must prove logical and tactical."

"The earth guardian must be strong in mind and body, impossible to manipulate" Terrador rumbled.

Finally Volteer spoke, "The Electric conservator ought to possess intellectual and zealous mannerisms." I think I understood that.

Spyro spoke then "And as I already said, they have to prove themselves able to defeat them in a duel where you take advantage of their elements characteristic shortcomings, The earths' straightforwardness, the fires' quick temper, the electricitys'… eccentricities and the ices' adherence to custom. You will fight in such a way that they will have to think differently then they normally would."

"Ok, that's what I test, but how?"

"That, young dragon, you will have to decide for yourself." Cyril said. "After the new guardians have been trained to their maximum by Spyro and taught the duties of a guardian by us, there will be a coronation ceremony after which you will assume the normal duties of an emissary."

"Which are?" I asked.

"Well for one, if someone in remote area has a problem, like an outbreak of Voidlings or The cursed dead, speaking of which, your friend, General Kenji has been sent to quell an outbreak in the high rise mountains. Anyway, you would be sent in our stead if we're busy. You would also be a negotiator of sorts if the arguing people don't wish to come to the temple."

"So, I'd be a peacekeeper?" I asked.

"No! Goodness no." Cyril said. "The guardians place is here, at the temple and the surrounding areas. If we're all out all the time, the temple would be left vulnerable, in addition each temple has certain duties that only they can perform, for example here at the southern temple is where Malefor and Spyros eggs were kept, and ten thousand years from now, the next purple egg will reside here. And the eastern temple used to be the center of the military. This is to prevent too much political power from being in one place. So if someone needs the services of the southern temple and we're too busy, you would fill in for us."

I tried to figure it out. "So, you're saying I'd be a part-time guardian?"

"Kind of." Terrador said "So, will you accept the role?"

"I don't know, that's a lot of responsibility, isn't it?"

"Just the facts that you comprehend the viciously alluring nature of power such as you have just revealed states the fact that it will be nigh impossible for you to be corrupted by it." Volteer said.

I took all this in and thought it over. Finally I said "I'll think about it. I also want to be able to quit anytime I want." I told them.

"It's not a position you can just quit, but aside from finding the guardians you have the right to turn down any and all missions you don't like."

And now we're back to the present, me lying in bed, unable to sleep. I quietly got up and went out to stretch my wings. I was tasked with testing the dragon in leadership. I had an idea how to do that, furthermore I was allowed to bring an assistant with me. I didn't think I would need one for this one, but it would be helpful in the future. After a while I returned to my room and looked though my picture book and drew a picture of myself flying over the town I lived in as a human. By that time, I was ready for bed and quickly drifted off.

When I woke, Perrin was already up, looking at the picture I drew the other night. She turned to me, "You know, you look nothing like this." She said.

"Yeah," I said. "I was never good at self portraits. "If I were to draw you, it'd be more accurate. Perrin, there's something I need to talk to you about."

She adopted a knowing look "So your finally coming out of the closet?"

"What? No!"

She smirked "I'm just messing with you, what is it you need to tell me?"

I thought for a minute how to word it. "The guardians have a job for me, they want me to go out and recruit four new guardians. I'd be gone for long stretches until it's done and then I would act as an emissary for them."

She closed her eyes in thought "How long does this job last?"

"It's permanent, though I don't have to accept any missions I don't want to."

Perrin opened her eyes, revealing the blue irises flecked with rose pink. "And do you want to do this?"

I nodded. "They thought I was the best dragon for the job, and not many others exist who can do it. I won't do anything to endanger you, but I don't see anything wrong with it."

She reached out and nuzzled my neck, "Then have fun."

I had been flying for a few hours and the sun was starting to come up, the first sliver of orange broke above the horizon and suddenly the gray land flared into color. The midnight blue sky faded to orange with a strip of green between the two, combined with the twin moons on either side would be remarkable enough without the light drizzle falling from high altitude clouds; forming a rainbow over the three celestial bodies. Far off to the right the morning star stared at it all, almost looking like I could fly into the star and return to the past. I was grateful for my developing powers; I could recall this wonder and share it with my friends and family as if they were here with me. I was nearing the mountain range that sliced the continent in two. Below me the rain that constantly formed on this side of the mountains made everything lush and green. And wet. Perfect for raising young fire dragons. Which was why I was here.

Below me ran a river fed by glacial runoff. Almost on its icy waters was what appeared to be a market in the middle of nowhere. This was my destination. I folded the last joints of my wings, making them smaller and rectangular; they let me dive in a controlled, leisurely pace. A handful of yards off the ground I flared my wings, swooping into a graceful landing and jogging to a stop.

Before me, barely noticeable from the air was a short, broad cliff that extended about a mile in either direction, lining the wall were a series of caves, these led to the underground city Stonefield.

I entered a cave that had runes bearing the message "Chaos is punished, order reigns in the halls of Stonefield."… I think. At any rate, the cave was altogether unremarkable except for the litter covering the floor and graffiti adorning the walls and ceiling. The markings depicted symbols of crime groups and supremacy movements, including; I noticed, The Chosen. The group who tried to kill me and Ryan in the forest. If the rest of the city was like this, I wouldn't be able to stay long.

I made my way to the house I had seen in the pool of visions; it was in the upper class side of town, which would pass for the slums in Warfang. The city had really fallen from grace. The cavern I was in was enormous. Giant pillars stood every couple hundred yards, carved to resemble giant streams of fire frozen in time. There were ruins of a palace that have crumbled from the passage of time. Surrounding it was a vast open space and the walls were lined with more caves serving as houses. I suppose the wisdom of building directly into the mountain saved the city from the same fate as the castle.

I drew much attention from my brilliant silver scales, as I had walked in they reflected the light in all directions like a great disco ball. Now at the cave/house of my target I knocked the pipe next to the entrance designed to carry the sound of visitors to the inhabitants. A short while later a crimson dragon walked to the entrance. "Can I help you?" he asked without even so much as a second glance at my coloring.

The dragon had the aforementioned crimson hide with a semi-reflective semi-metallic gold belly, horns, crests, and wing bones. The wings were blood red and faded to pale, almost white. A signature of someone who spent most of their time on the ground as the blood didn't circulate well. The spikes on his shoulders, chest plates and crests all hade the jagged look of broken stone. His tail had a spike identical to his straight horns.

I made a quick bow. "Greetings! I come on the behalf of the guardians of Warfang, Your name's Flame, right?"

He nodded. "It is."

To be continued…


	15. Ignitus's succesor, A myterious stranger

I made a quick bow. "Greetings! I come on the behalf of the guardians of Warfang, Your name's Flame, right?"

He nodded. "It is."

"Hello, mine is James. I have something important to discus with you, may I come in?"

He nodded again and walked back in, motioning me to follow with his wing.

The inside was conservative to put it nicely, to be frank they were in the midst of lower class. _Wow,_ I thought _This is not how I pictured Flame living, he's a frikkin' main character!_

Flame went to the entrance to a side passage, "Honey, We have a visitor!" He called. He turned to me. "So, want to sit down?" I obliged.

I could tell he was curious but before either of us could say anything another dragon walked out to join us, my jaw hit the floor. If Flame living in squalor was surprising it had nothing on this.

A pink dragoness strode into the room. I could sense something coming off her, like… healing. But strangely fire? She had a lavender fin shaped crest on her head and bovine horns. Her gold necklace matched her heart shaped tail blade. She sat down next to Flame. "Hi, my names Ember."

"I…uh…frug…uh, my names James." I stammered, completely shocked at this. Knowing what I did of the Spyro games, I had spent an entire month pondering Ember and how to keep her off Spyro if she ever showed up. Not a problem now I guess.

Flame noticed my awkwardness and gave me a funny look. My face felt hot "It's a very long story, but that's not why I'm here. Flame, you know about Ignitus, right?"

"Of course. He died saving Spyro, right? What's that have to do with anything?"

"Well, he… left instructions about who was to succeed him as the next fire guardian. He thought you were the best choice."

Flame and Embers faces were unreadable as they thought this over, then Flame finally said. "You're serious?"

I nodded. "Dead serious. I've been sent to ask you if your interested, and if you are to test you to see if your up to snuff."

Flame looked hard in thought while Ember asked "What about me?"

"The two of you and any children you may have would be given free room and board in Warfang. You would be welcomed with open arms."Ember nodded her understanding, then Flame asked a question.

"What's the test?"

Meanwhile, in Warfang

Zoulu strode from the training room. Her ever growing electrical powers now far exceeded her fathers, though Spyro was still able to wipe the floor with her through the use of other elements and pure experience. In her latest match she had created a lightning bomb that shattered the floor, ceiling and walls except for the patches directly above and below Spyro, her father untouched. Then his eyes glowed and an invisible force threw her into a boulder which flowed over her legs, tail and torso and solidified, trapping her. Spyro landed.

"Good job Zoulu, anyone else and they would have lost - or worse."

As Spyro was about to break her free, she channeled her energy into chest and released. The stone encasing her cracked, beams of light shined from underneath, and her prison shattered, pummeling Spyro with pebbles. "I'm still going, Dad!" She said and leapt at him.

She should have left it there. now she had a collection of bruises and minor burns that she refused to get healed. They were a testament to her foolishness at refusing to admit defeat. She hoped this would drill a bit of wisdom into her to go with her strength.

She stopped in a garden and looked up at the night sky, the twin moons, one full, the other ¾ full. Off to the left was the dragon cluster, a galaxy of stars shaped like a dragon that appeared the day Malefor was sealed. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement against the velvet backdrop, black on black. She turned to face it and saw a dragon streaking towards the forest.

Curiosity overtook her and she leapt into the sky, her wings unfolding and beating the wind until it submitted to her will and carried her up. She angled her wings and shot off after the dragon.

She'd gotten faster lately, her father had showed her how to use electricity to accelerate, the ground was a dark blur below her. She followed the dragon for a ways before it dropped into the forest, it didn't even dive or slow down, one second it was rocketing forward, then it took a 90 degree turn straight down at the same speed, but there was no crash. Zoulu knew that shouldn't be physically possible. She back flapped like mad but still over shot him. As she passed she felt pure energy, like when you're standing exactly where lightning's about to strike a second later.

She turned around and circled the clearing where he, she could definitely tell it was male now, was sitting by some kind of stone marker. He looked up and drilled into her with intense, but sad eyes the most vivid purple Zoulu'd ever seen before turning back to the marker. Zoulu went into a shallow dive and alighted next to him.

He didn't even turn to her. "Vergaro."

"Zoulu. Beside the name, who are you? I've never seen you."

"A nomad. I have no home. I need no home."

Zoulu tried to make him out, but he sat in shade. She could only make out two things, he was extremely fit, and his eyes that seemed to be able to annihilate anything that crossed their pat from the intensity of his gaze. She turned to the stone, which had glowing runes of a foreign language.

"What is it?"

Again he stared at the marker. "We can learn from the past. In particular the mistakes made. If we but looked back and saw what went wrong we can prevent history from repeating itself. This reminds me of a mistake once made by someone, that way I can succeed where he failed."

"What are you trying to do?"

For the second time he looked at me, his eyes full of determination and some infinite sadness and a hint of blind fury. "I'm trying to survive." And he looked back.

For the first time I noticed a small cross at the top of the marker and two dates underneath.

Back at Stonefield

"Alright Flame, you ready?"

I had found that when he gets exited, you can see tiny sparks of flame trickle from his mouth as he speaks, like now. "Heck yeah."

"Alright. " I said "Just to recap, I've hidden something somewhere in a fifty mile radius either in or around Stonefeild. Find it."

He let loose two jets of flame from his nostrils and touched his wings overhead, reared back and leapt high into the sky, at the apex he thrust down, carrying him off into the sky. Ember walked up beside me. "You never said what he's looking for." I nodded.

"It adds to the challenge. Besides, it's such unique object he'll know it as soon as he sees it."

"But fifty square miles is a large area to cover by himself."

Again I nodded. "Exactly. In fact, I had my sister cast a spell on the object so it'll warp away from him if he gets too close. The point is to test leadership. He'll have to convince enough people to go on a wild goose chase or he'll fail. I've told him this in private… I hope he succeeds. I can sense power about him." I turned to ember "And you."

She met my gaze with a confused expression.

"Ember, what are your elements?"

"Healing and fire. Why do you ask?"

"Do you realize how rare dual elements are?"

She shook her head. "Not counting Spyro and Cynder," I told her "There are only three that I know of including you. The others are a friend and myself. I'm freakish enough to be able to sense this, but enough to know what this means, but I do know that the dragons with multiple elements have always been involved in the shaping of the world. I also know that when you reach Warfang, all of us will know each other. I don't believe in coincidence."

She stood silent for a while, then : "What are your elements?"

"Two rare ones, Light and shadow. Together they form a third ability that can't be called an element on it's own called Chaos. Like it sounds, it's unpredictable and I don't like using it."

Ember closed her eyes like she was focusing on remembering this conversation. "And your friend?"

"Fire and wind. But I'm not surprised by that, For instance his body's like a fusion of dragon and human, but he's an amazing fighter."

Ember snorted "Humans don't exist, they're stories made to scare little children." Just then there was a flash of light and when she turned to me she looked down at my human form, almost half her height.

Her eyes grew wide. "You were saying?" I asked. While she tried to stammer out a response, I transformed back to my dragon form. "Enough idle chatter though, lets get you packed."

"But we don't know if Flame will succeed or not."

"True, but I've been many places, places you'll never see if you traverse the entire earth. I've never seen such poor living conditions. I'll make sure that whatever happens you can stay in Warfang." As we were walking back to their cave, we looked up to see what looked like a squadron of dragons flying to the exit. At the tip of the triangle formation was Flame.

Avalar forest

Zoulu was fascinated by this mysterious dragon. He didn't say much and she felt a desire to ease the sadness that seemed to roll off him. Whenever she tried to start a conversation, he answered in as few words as possible. This continued until the sun started to break through the horizon. The markings on the stone faded and Vergaro seemed to snap out of a trance, suddenly he was a completely different person.

He looked up at Zoulu, the sadness gone, replaced by a vivid energy. "I'm sorry for being so rude to you. I just get emotional sometimes, could I fly you back to the city to make up for it?"

Zoulu hardly knew Vergaro but felt at ease with him. "Sure."

Vergaro crouched, then leapt high into the air in the leaving a shockwave of electricity and trailing an arc of lightning. Zoulu stood there for a moment. _He's electricity too! But his colorings so dark!_ She took off after him, using her own powers to catch up in a heartbeat. In the morning light she could see him clearer. His wings were a vivid blue that almost hurt her eyes, his crests, lightning shaped horns that rimmed his face like a lions mane, wing spikes and tail/elbow blades also bolt shaped were a goldenrod color, he was extremely muscular, she betted he could crush stone with his bare claws. But that wasn't what caught her attention. His scales sent a ripple of adrenaline through her and she wouldn't have believed it had she not seen it herself.

He was purple.

It was the dark purple in the evening sky that appears directly overhead just before full night. They glittered like a thousand polished stones and made his gold horns, etc. jump out to the eye.

She caught up with him. "You're a purple dragon?"

He laughed, a deep, lilting laugh that eased her tension. "No. My scales are purple but that's it. I'm purely electric."

"Oh."

They flew on, occasionally asking one another questions and taking their time getting back. Eventually they reached the city walls and the sight jogger Zoulus memory.

"Aw man! I have school today! I've gotta go!"

Valcor chuckled. "Alright, I guess this is where we part ways then. Maybe we'll see each other again?"

Zoulu smiled "Maybe." Then in a blast of electricity shot off like a charge from a cannon.

Stonefield

"3…2…1…time." I called, watching as the sun broke the horizon. Time was up and Flame was nowhere to be seen. He had failed. I glanced over at Ember, she looked on the verge of tears. "Hey it's OK." I said, trying to comfort her. "Your still coming to Warfang."

"I know." She said. "But I saw how important this was to him. You know he went his entire life being told he was worthless? He was bullied as a child and his parents died in the war. When I flew the flight of bonding with him people told me it was the stupidest thing I'd ever done. He thought of this as a chance to prove them all wrong, that his life is worth something. And now he looks even more foolish to them…"

Just then a green dragon flew toward us as fast as he could. He stopped midair in front of us "Sorry I'm late Ember, Sir. Flame found the object ten minutes ago, before the sunrise. He 's quite a ways off and as he was returning he saw an elderly dragoon that had dropped in flight and broken a wing. He told me to go ahead of him while he helped him back. He did accomplish the goal."

With that he opened his claw and revealed a card, It was yellow with seven stars near the top and a picture of a skinny black dragon with crimson eyes. I reached out and took the card. Ember leaned over to look at it, but English was foreign to her. "The Red eyes black dragon." I told her. "I memento from my old life, I keep it as it reminds me of my human mother, who bought it for me as a child, and my biological mother, Cynder."

Ember jumped at that. "Spyro and Cynder are your _parents_?"

I just nodded and focused on the spell Selena taught me, in a whistling sound the card vanished, back to my room in Warfang, Though not to be my room much longer. I was a year older than Spyros other children and to their dismay was placed in the class above them. I was set to graduate this summer.

A half hour later I looked at the sun, using a veil of shadow energy to shield my eyes, out of the center of the dazzling disk came the silhouette of a dragon, As he drew closer Ember squinted and looked at him. "It's Flame!" She shouted. Her wings and tail twitched as if it took an effort just to keep from flying to him. As soon as he touched down she let go and in a single bound covered the forty feet to him, wrapping her neck around his and embracing him in her wings. "Flame, you did it! you passed!"

Flame looked over his mates wings at me, waiting for the final verdict, I couldn't help it, I was grinning like an idiot. He laughed and Hugged Ember back. After a few minutes they let go and Flame came over to me. "So, what now?"

"Now, it's time for the second and final test."

He looked confident, "Which is?"

"A duel." His confidence was replaced by a moment of shock, then he regained his composure.

"I'm ready." He said "Come, I'll take you to an arena." As the three of us made our way to the ruins of the castle, people stopped and stared at Flame, people who had told him his entire life he wouldn't amount to anything. A large part of me wanted to let him win and show them they were wrong, but I couldn't. Otherwise neither of us would deserve the jobs assigned to us.

Eventually we got inside the ruins and I beheld an awesome sight, in the true meaning of the word, fearful wonder.

The arena was a pit dug into the ground, about sixty feet deep with a steel grid over the top. Around the lip were racks of armor and various weapons. The walls of the pit were stained black, most likely from ages old blood; the floor looked like the sand was churned after each fight. It was a dark rust color. It reminded me too much of the Coliseum in Rome. It probably witnessed the same barbarism. The engraving outside the entrance, "Chaos is punished, Order reigns" Seemed ironic at first, now it seemed hypocritical.

Flame looked at me and saw the look of disgust on my face and said "You know, I don't come here, everyone else gets a jolly out of these… fights, I went once as a child, snuck in. When I saw the two brothers enter the cage, and kill each other, all over a girl, I decided I would never come back and would one day put a stop to this.

I swallowed my bile. "Well, if you win as a guardian it'll be your job to stop things like this. Why do we have to be here?"

"Because," He said "in Stonefield, arguments that can't be negotiated must be settled in the cage. These people won't accept my position unless I earn it here."

As we were let into the cage, I noticed there was some ward that prevented flying. I explained the rules. "OK Flame, it looks like there's no flying… and obviously it would be bad for you to kill me, and vise-versa. Don't worry about injuries, I've arranged for my wife to come this afternoon, she's a healing dragon and a nurse. And Ember can probably heal all but the most severe injuries. And I have a contingency for that too. Since you cant ring out, try and put me down for ten seconds and you win.

Warfang

Zoulu mad it to class just before the bell for second class pealed. She got some curious looks as she came in, panting and sparking occasionally from her speed burst. As she took her place the professor came up. "Are you OK Zoulu? You look like you were in a fight."

"No of course not." She replied "I was late so I used my element to get here faster. That's all. You see any bruises?"

Another student who was in her training class said "Even if Zoulu got in a fight she wouldn't have bruises, trust me. I know." This got a few laughs and Zoulu felt proud and at the same time remembered the defeat she suffered at her fathers claws. _I'll get him one of these days, then I can prove I deserve to be called his successor. Selena and James've already earned that right and Fever chose love, though I don't blame him. I wonder if I'll meet anyone like Spyder for me._ As she thought this her mind wandered to that dragon she met the other night. She shook her head to clear it but could only do so for a few minutes at a time before she found herself thinking of him again. As a result she didn't even understand the days lesson.

After the days classes were over She left to go home. She was flying and not really paying attention to where she was going and suddenly realized she had drifted off course. In fact, she was headed strait for where she first met Valcor! "Ok! That's enough!" She said aloud and wheeled around to the city, annoyed with herself. She got home and went into her room, she slung the side bag off her shoulder and realized she hadn't the slightest idea what her assignment was. _Crud._ Then the door opened and Cynder walked in.

Her mother walked in and sat down. "Zoulu, where were you last night?"

_Double crud._

"I…um, got lost." She lied.

"Uh-huh. You forgot how to get to your house when it's in sight of the temple?"

"Umm…"

Cynder sighed "Zoulu, Me and Spyro have done some pretty stupid things in the past, So whatever it is you can tell me."

"Well, there's this boy… but I don't know if I like him or not."

Cynder said nothing for a moment, then "You're probably lucky you told me and not your father, he's very protective over you all. So you're not sure about him yet you spent the night with him?"

"Not like that! I saw him flying to the forest and followed him, when I caught up with him he was staring at some memorial or grave or something like that and hardly said a word until sunrise. Then he almost turned into another person, he was so much cheerier after. He accompanied me back to the city then we parted ways."

Cynder sat that entire time saying nothing, just listening. After Zoulu was done, she said "Be careful, if you decide you like this boy, be careful who you give your heart to." Cynder got up and walked to the door, but before she left she turned her neck to face Zoulu "Not everyone is who they seem."

Stonefield

Ember stood on the cages ceiling, ready to announce the winner. I was prepared to evade, to examine Flames fighting style and force him to fight differently, We had been circling each other for a full five minutes, just waiting for an opening. I chanced a glance up, the rim of the cage had grown crowded, there must have been two hundred dragons and moles of all ages and walks of life crowded around the lip.

Flame must have seen my eyes as He opened his mouth and launched a torrent of fire at me, I delved into my energy and summoned a shield of shadowy mist in front of me, which caused the fire to radiate outward in all directions in streams. Veiled by the fire, He pounced at me; jumping through the fire and flames, and dissipating the shadow mist. I barely had time to jump out of the way as he landed where I had been. He touched ground and immediately leapt at me again, I focused my power inward and he phased through me, my body turning to mist where his claws ripped through me, reforming into solid flesh a moment later.

As soon as he passed me he whipped his tail, connecting with my neck and sending me sprawling, he then turned and loosed another blast of fire in a left to right arc. Then, anticipating me getting up, he jumped into the air and launched four balls of fire around me which exploded on contact with the sand, trapping me as the wave of fire rushed at me and Flame dove at me, his wings folded in front of him, transforming him into a lace cloaked in fire.

I focused on the space above and behind him and instantly was there, looking down at him in the wake of a whistle. I focused energy into my mouth, charged a ball of white energy, and fired, driving Flame into his own attack. I couldn't fly within the ward, but I backflapped to land behind the wave of fire. As the wave passed around flame, it spiraled inward, I saw Flame; his head pointed up and mouth open, all the fire around him getting sucked in a vortex, gathering into a large ball above his mouth. As he gathered the last of it, He brought his head down and launched the colossal ball at me.

I focused another mass of energy and this time released it all at once. A small ball of light, about the size of a baseball flew out and hit the mass of fire, it caused the ball of fire to sag, then they both exploded with enormous force, Me and Flame shielded ourselves with our wings, suffering minor burns. Ember got off the cage in time as a column of fire the width of the pit shot up and dissipated on the ceiling hundreds of feet above us.

The next thing I noticed was pain. I looked down; the sand floor was glowing cherry red. So was the cage ceiling for that matter. I howled and stated hopping like a jackrabbit, Flame was less than bothered, and the sand under his feet was the dull rust it normally was. He was smirking. I focused my shadow abilities and turned my feet into blobs of shadow. I could now stand without burning myself.

Flame launched into another attack, shooting a storm of fireballs at me. I turned and ran to the right; he turned to follow me, hundreds of small explosions sounding behind me. Suddenly I stopped and generated a multitude of shadowy disks that shot here and there, intercepting any fireball I could track with my eyes. When Flame stopped the attack, I mimicked it with balls of light. Without moving, he repeated the attack, every light blast hitting a fireball ant exploding.

I then noticed He hadn't moved, He had stopped the sand he stood on from growing hot and an ever bigger area around him was cooling. Soon he would be able to reach me. I jumped to the wall to give myself the most time. When the flares of explosions faded, I looked to the center of the cage. Flame stood there. I charged a beam of light and launched it at him. It hit, and he exploded. His body turned to a dark, oily smoked and drifted up, out of the cage. I stared at where he had been in disbelief, then heard a sound behind me.

I turned and saw a flaming tail whip at me, it hit soundly in the chest, and was followed by a wing spike, and then I felt claws rake across my face, then the other side. I felt a great force hit me broadside and send me to the ground in the circle of cool sand. I tried to get up but a tail to the head stopped that, dazed I could only wonder what just happened as I felt jaws clamp on my neck, not breaking the skin, and his legs pin mine, his tail wrapping mine tightly. I faintly heard Ember saying something, probably counting to ten. However, at that point there was really nothing I could do. Eventually Flame let go of my neck and got off.

I shakily got to my feet, my vision dimming at the edges and my hearing filled with a ringing. Ember jumped down and came to me. I said, "Get Flame first." But I couldn't hear my own voice, or Embers response. There was pink light, I could see nothing. For a full minute I could see only pink, I could even taste pink is was so vibrant. The ringing faded and I could hear pink. Eventually the blood cleared from my nose and I could even _smell_ pink! Eventually the pink void faded and I could see again. "I hate pink." I said.

Ember smiled. "You'll get over it, they all do." She then went to flame and after looking him over breathed mist (it was horribly pink) on flame, which covered the few bruises and burns he had and quickly dissipated.

After we were healed, we got out of the cage and the three of us slugged back to their cave, followed the whole way by cheers and praise for Flame. Even though he looked ready to drop, he wore a huge smile on his face.

I woke up to the smell of meat. How long I slept I had no idea, Flame and Ember were up, preparing a small feast. I stood up, still fatigued. Ember spoke to me "Your injuries were more severe than you think, I had to use your energy to heal you, that's why your so tired.

I nodded. "What's all this then?" I said, motioning to the food.

Flame laughed, "We cant' take food with us, so were celebrating with what have available. Some friends are coming over.

An hour later, the food was done and the guests had arrived. Among them was the dragon Flam had sent ahead to tell us he had passes the test. After a delicious meal and much congratulations and conversation, the party was over and the guests walked us to the entrance to Stonefield. We walked out into the sunlight and turned as Flame and Ember said their final farewells. Then we turned and leapt into the sky, Ember the last to take off. Then we set our sights to the west. Towards Warfang. Towards home.


	16. Hearts collide

We were headed back to Warfang, Flame, the new fire guardian, Ember, his mate, and myself. The trip was spent mostly with them asking questions, which felt weird. They were old enough to be my parents. They _were_ the same age as my parents! I answered to the best of my ability but most of the time I just said, "Ask the guardians, they know more than I do."

About halfway back we saw a dragon flying toward us, as we drew nearer I could recognize Perrin. I shot off ahead of the couple and flew full tilt to her. We met each other a few minutes later, circling each other.

"James! Your back early!"

I chuckled "No Perrin, you're late. Flames passed, he's the new guardian."

"Oops… I guess I lost track of time." She said, blushing. "Who's she?"

"That's Ember, Flames mate. She has healing _and_ fire abilities. It's really rare."

Perrin watched them approach. "Huh." As they caught up with us, we turned back to Warfang and the four of us introduced one another before continuing our journey.

Warfang

Zoulu wandered the city restlessly. Her feelings weren't normally this hectic, _what's wrong with me?_ She wondered. She'd been thinking about Valcor, what she really thought of him. She was normally quick to a decision, but this time she went back and forth like a loose barrel on the deck of a ship. She wandered into the outer part of the city, where the market was. There she felt an incredible power, that same feeling of imminent lightning. She looked up, a storm was gathering, but it was on the horizon, to the east. Then she turned a corner and saw him.

Or at least it looked like him, the scales were a dull amber, but it looked just like Valcor. She walked up behind him. Before she could speak, he said "Hi Zoulu."

"Valcor! It's you! What are- what happened to you?"

He chuckled, that deep laugh, "It's a disguise. What are you doing here?"

Caught off guard, Zoulu could only get out "I-I, uh… don't really know."

Valcor let out a loud laugh at that, which he quickly stopped as people stated to stare. Quietly he said, "Well, do you want to accompany me? I was just about to grab a bite."

Zoulu smirked "Are you asking me out?"

Valcor just closed his eyes and shrugged "If you want to think that, then yeah. I guess I am."

"You guess? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that I never actually said that. It's interesting how your mind works."

Zoulu blushed. "Not as weird as going into a trance all night."

Valcors face darkened as he recalled that night… and all the others. "Maybe you're right, what do you like?"

Zoulu walked away "Follow me."

A while later they got to an odd restraint, Valcor had seen nothing like it before. Rarely did he eat anything but meat; here he smelled the overpowering smell of vegetables, tomatoes primarily. "Uh, Zoulu? What is this place?"

She shrugged, "Something called an Italian restaurant."

"What's an Italy?"

"No idea."

Despite his initial wariness, Zoulu convinced him to try the spaghetti. Whit meat of course. Zoulu had to keep from laughing as he went for the first bite as if it would bite him back. Afterward, the look of surprised delight spread across his face and he started to gorge, Zoulu would normally follow suit, but for some reason she wanted to seem more sophisticated to him. After two more helpings of spaghetti, which he ate at a more leisurely pace, Valcor was finally sated. They spent the rest of the time talking to each other, Several times Zoulu almost let something private slip, she felt incredibly at ease with him. There was definitely something about him that wasn't in other dragons, even the boys she had crushes on as a child.

By this time the clouds from earlier had covered the sky, lightning flaring from cloud to cloud as a precursor of the storm to come tonight. When it stated to get dark, Valcor volunteered to walk her home. As they walked, they shared more of their lives, Valcor did most of the talking. As Zoulu found out he had no home, no family. He was orphaned as a child, though he refused to say any more, a look of hurt and guilt across his face._ Maybe he blames his parents deaths on himself._ Zoulu thought. He had lived nomadically since then, teaching himself everything he knew about fighting and more advanced elemental control his parents hadn't had time to teach him. He had known few dragons and befriended fewer.

When they got to her house, They found Spyro and Cynder in the front yard, laughing at something, Valcor, just ahead of Zoulu froze as soon as he saw them. He didn't like crowds, but this was unusual, Zoulu could tell from the look in his eyes. Spyro looked up and looked from Valcor, to Zoulu and back to Valcor. After a few seconds, Valcor seemed to regain control of his body. He turned back to Zoulu. "I, uh, gotta go." He said quickly

"Where…" Zoulu started, but he was already gone. Zoulu looked back at her parents, who had a confused look, then to the sky. It had started to rain.

The night before, far side of Warfang

It was at beautiful moonlit night on a hill overlooking the city, upon which both Selena and Ryan were lying, side-by-side against the soft, green grass. Ryan looked over to Selena, and found how beautiful her pink scales looked underneath the bright intensity of the full moon's light.

He remembered how earlier that month he had finally worked up the courage to ask her out. How terrified he was of her answer and how delighted he had been when she agreed. How that month they had done things like going out to eat, seeing plays (he especially enjoyed the one that recalled the events with Byancyra. He thought it was hilarious that they had to dye a dragons scales purple to play Spyro. Tonight they had opted for a quiet night. Tonight he would say it. 

"Selena?" He asked her. Selena turned her gaze to him. 

"Yes, Ryan?" she replied. 

Ryan shifted nervously "There's something I have always wanted to tell you." 

"What is it?"

Ryan started to speak, but his voice caught in his throat. Then he imagined it was just the two of them in existence, no one and nothing else, this helped his bolster his courage. He slowly inclined his head toward hers and gently whispered, "I love you." Selena gasped delightfully, as if she expected it. 

"Really?" she said joyfully. 

"Yes. I have always loved since the day James and I first rescued you, your family, and the other Guardians from your capture, Selena, my lunar beauty." 

"Oh, Ryan!" Then they both inclined their heads forward and pressed their lips together in a brief, yet romantically deep and passionate kiss. 

"I love you too, Ryan," said Selena softly after we broke away. "With all my heart." They then lovingly gazed into each other's eyes, and inclined their heads forward again in another amazingly deep kiss.

As they kissed, Selena positioned herself next to him so he felt her amazingly smooth side pressed against his, which brought intense warmth as they put their arms around each other. Throughout this second kiss, his tongue explored the depths of her mouth when it suddenly made contact with her tongue. They enclosed themselves in each other's wings and entwined their tails, attempting to be as close as possible. As Selena and Ryan gently caressed the other's tongues, Ryan felt his heart rate spike with her irresistible taste.

A sensation which was absolutely and ethereally beautiful to a magnitude of where no words to describe it, they both felt intense sensations coursing and tingling from their spinal areas and throughout their bodies. When the kiss separated, Ryan then reached up, started kissing Selena along the base of her graceful neck, and worked his way up until he found her lips again while she sequentially sighed with joy.

They parted lips again and turned to stare at the stars as they performed their slow dance through the sky. This they watched until the ruddy glow that preempted the sun cast light onto the world. from the east came the narrow band of clouds that looked like possible rain. Far ahead of the clouds but still an hour out of Warfang came four dragons. As the sun broke the horizon, the lead dragon gave off a silver twinkle. It was James.

Ryan and Selena looked to each other. "Suns coming up." Selena said.

"Mmhmm"

Selena gave him a quick lick on the cheek. "Want to come over for breakfast?"

Ryan smiled as if he had won the lottery. "Sure." So Ryan rose and hooked Selena under the arm with his wing "hook" and helped her to her feet, then as one they raised their wings and leapt into the sky, as they started to fall they pushed down, sending them into a shallow ascent, which they leveled of and headed to the city in a slow glide.

An hour later

Flame, Ember, Perrin and I touched down at the temple after a hard night's flight. Gratefully folding my wings I led the way to the enchanted staircase, Perrin decided to leave to go visit Spyro. I led them "down" to the top floor. When we came out to sunshine, Flame and Ember looked around with amazement.

"How-" Flame started, but Terrador walked around the corner at that moment.

I folded my wing over my chest, "Terrador, I've completed my mission, May I present Flame, who has passed the test with flying colors, and his mate, Ember?"

Terrador inclined his head "Welcome, Fire guardian" Flame and Ember looked kind of overwhelmed, but managed to return the greeting. I turned to them.

"Flame, Ember, may I present the Earth guardian, Terrador?"

They just stared at him. Terrador chuckled. "Please, don't act like a schoolgirl, We're equals remember?"

Ember spoke first. "Y-yeah, it's just we've heard so much about you from the war, you know?"

I smirked, "Wait'll you meet Spyro and Cynder." I noticed that Flame had remained silent during this exchange. I shrugged inwardly; figuring whatever it was they would get it sorted out. I turned to Terrador, "Speaking of which, could you excuse me? I'd like to let my family know I'm back."

"Of course, James, come back whenever your ready for your next assignment." I thanked him and left Flame and Ember in his care. They would be walked around and given a tour, probably by Volteer _The guy's gonna talk 'em to death._ I thought as I headed up to the bottom floor.

Once out I figured my wings were still sore so I decided to walk. When I finally got home, I saw Spyro, Cynder and Perrin waiting. Cynder spoke as I came up to them. "So, how'd it go?"

"Oh, you know, flying halfway across the world, getting my butt kicked on purpose, and then flying halfway around the world again, I had a great time!"

Spyro started laughing, "Jeez, you sounded just like Sparx there!" Cynder and Perrin joined in the laughter after that. I smiled.

A thought occurred to me, "Say, where has Sparx been lately?"

"He's been dealing with Lumi, adolescent years, you know?" He comes by now and again though." Spyro said, then, "Say; we've been thinking, Ever since you told us about what Ignitus told you about us and you, we haven't really had any time to bond, me and Cynder were wondering if you wanted to go somewhere and talk."

My heart seemed to leap. "Yeah, sure!"

Perrin spoke up, "I'm coming too, I would like to get to know them too."

I nodded. "Cool."

So later we had arrived at one of the most popular spots in Warfang, the wall which overlooked the burned lands. This had become a tourist trap for one reason, on the fringe of the black scar on the earth was a lone scraggly tree, growing out of the perpetual ash. This was seen as an omen that life was coming back to the area and someday soon the place would return to haw it was before the war, a great forest.

We sat there for a while, Spyro and Cynder didn't have much to say that I didn't already know so they mostly let Perrin and I do the talking. We told them about our lives before we came to the dragon realms, our families, our friends, our experiences. In turn, Spyro and Cynder told us about the events that transpired between the fall of Malefor and Lucarios attack all those years ago. How they had lived in different places before finally settling down in Avalar. We had a great time just sitting there, laughing at each other's follies and relating to the others failures. About mid afternoon, we decided to head home for lunch.

At home, Cynder stayed in the main room with us and talked with us while Spyro went into the kitchen. After a few minutes of talking, we smelled smoke. Cynder went in the kitchen and I could hear them argue.

"Spyro, what's going on?"

"I'm making lunch, what's it look like?"

"It _smells_ like the house's on fire." Suddenly there was a flash and a cloud of smoke rolled out of the kitchen along with Spyro and Cynder, coughing. Cynder glared at Spyro, "Yeah, you _did_ burn the house down."

"Sorry" He replied sheepishly "I'm more used to cooking over a campfire." Cynder groaned and walked back into the kitchen, a second later, there was a breeze as the smoke seemed to be sucked back into the kitchen, then the air was clean again. Spyro sat down with a look that said he wasn't going to risk opening his mouth again.

Fever, Selena, and Zoulu were still out and an hour later, Cynder came out with a side of mutton, which tasted as delicious as it looked. Conversation resumed at the table and Cynders cool demeanor was soon broken as I told about the time as a child that I lost a fight with a rooster. Cynder joined in the laughter after that and the mood at the table lifted.

After lunch, Perrin and I excused ourselves and took off together. We headed back to our room in the temple and spent the rest of the day in each others company.

Spyros house

Spyro and Cynder were getting ready for bed after Zoulu came back with the boy. Cynder didn't see anything wrong with him, aside from his timidity. _He certainly isn't bad too look at either_. She thought she turned and looked at Spyro, no matter who showed up; there would be no one more attractive than him though. As they lay down, they focused their mana and extended their minds to each other.

_So Spyro, what do you think of that boy Zoulu was with?_ Cynder asked/

His look said it all. _Humph, I would have preferred to talk to him, know who my daughters getting herself into._

_Well, he did seem terrified of you._ Cynder pointed out

_He should be, I don't want anything happening to her._

_Spyro! Of all people, you should know Zoulu can handle herself._

A shudder ran up Spyros spinewhich in turn caused Cynder to shudder. _You didn't feel him Cyn, since I can use electricity I could pick up the energy he was giving off, just like how you can sense evil, He wasn't even preparing for a fight and he was giving off more electricity that a hundred thunderstorms! That kid is amazingly powerful; the only other dragons I felt that kind of power in were Malefor and the Chronicler. And you when you were being controlled. If it came down to kill or be killed, I'm not sure I could beat him._

…_Your scared of him._

_No! _He said quickly._ I'm not scared of a persons power, it's the persons intentions that frighten me._

Cynder arched her long neck over Spyros shoulders and rested on him, sending him her confidence._ Spyro, don't worry, from what Zoulu tells me he's a nice guy, if it turns out he's deceiving her, I'll back you. I think even if Malefor and the Chronicler were to team up they would fall to both of us, and we'd have Zoulu, James and the rest of our family and friends to help._

_I guess your right. _Spyro said in a tone that was shaking with relief._ Speaking of James, what do you think of all this?_

Spyro looked at her and saw her eyes were closed and she wore a grin that surprised Spyro that it didn't make it past her horns._ Spyro, I haven't been this happy in a long time! I had almost gotten over the pain of losing the egg when he told us he was our son. I just about burst with joy! I'm so glad we could spend time with him today, I wouldn't trade that for anything. What about you?_

Spyro smiled in turn._ Well, you're in my head so you know, My emotions aren't quite as vivid as yours but I feel like a piece of me that was missing for nineteen years is finally back, I just wish dad were here to see this._

_Spyro, Ignitus is the one who told James._ Cynder pointed out.

Confusion, surprise and sadness all flashed across his face so fast if Cynders eyes had been open she still would have missed it._ …I mean t- I meant Flash, Sparxs father. He took me in you know, I would have died as a hatchling without him. I miss him Cyn._

Wanting to comfort he love, Cynder looked for the right words to say and asked herself what she would want Spyro to say in this situation. She then knew what she should say in turn._ I know, but you got to learn about Ignitus, and you said it yourself, James is back, and our families not going to be separated ever again. I promise you that._

Spyro smiled, relieved and put his head next to Cynders._ Thanks Cyn, I love you so much._

_I love you too._


	17. Valcors secret! The new Ice Guardian?

I woke the next morning feeling refreshed, but with a sense of anticipation. I looked over at Perrin sleeping beside me and smiled. It had been a week since our day together with my parents. "_Spyro and Cynder are my parents!" _ I thought, I would never get used to that fact. I looked over at the doorway and saw a note had been slipped under the door. In the past week, Cynder had been teaching me some advanced shadow techniques.

I focused on the paper, a black orb surrounded it and it flew over to me. I released it and the orb dissipated, the paper falling into my paw. I could tell from the flowing script it was from Cyril.

Dear James & Perrin,

I; Cyril, have taken the time to let you know that you are wanted at the pool of visions at noonday. Congratulations again on bringing Flame, He has proved most studious and advances quickly. His mate, Ember is of equal interest, did you know she posses dual elements? This will be looked into and seen to if her talents can be made to serve the common good.

Do not be late again.

Cyril

I smiled, each of the guardians had their quirks, though I was glad it wasn't Volteer who had written it, or I probably wouldn't have been able to understand it. I looked out the window; the sun was just starting to come over the building tops, "_Good"_ I thought, "_plenty of time."_ I put the note aside and turned back to Perrin, I draped my wing over her and fell back asleep.

My dreams were normal nonsense for the most part except for one, which seemed unnaturally clear. In it I was flying above a forest, I looked down and saw a road; I could see cars driving along it. Suddenly the dream shifted and I was flying above the clouds. In front of me was a dragon, but no ordinary dragon, it was a Chinese type, with large wings; it shone with such brilliance I couldn't stare at it. I stared in wonder at it until the dream shifted yet again, I was back at the road, but the sun had set. I saw a few cars driving at dangerous speeds and realized it was a race.

Suddenly a beam of darkness shot from the sky and decimated the road; a car veered off course and fell to its doom off a cliff. As it exploded, I felt the blast of heat and could almost feel the life snuffed out. I looked up and saw the dragon from before, except its brilliance was tainted by a dark aura surrounding it, black wisps still drifted from its mouth. It turned to stare at me, suddenly my wings froze, but I didn't fall. I just stared at the face before me, the ghastly light given off by the fire played off its features, suddenly it flew at me, its mouth open wide, its jaws closed around me and I saw no more.

I woke up breathing hard. My jerking must have woken Perrin as she was staring at me concerned. "James, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little shaken. That was one heck of a nightmare…"

She nodded, "I'll say."

I looked at her confused. "What do you mean?"

She looked near tears "You were moaning and yelling, like you were in pain, then at the very end, you-you turned into that _THING_!"

"What thing?"

"You went all black and started smoking, like back at the desert."

Suddenly I remembered watching myself succumb to the darkness and become… "I remember, my dark form called itself something else, but what was it?" I thought. I couldn't remember, so I put it aside.

I wiped a tear from her face and she looked up at me. In my most soothing voice, I said, "Perrin, I'm all right, I'm not going to hurt you or anyone else, understand?"

She nodded. "Did you read the note?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I did. What time is it?"

"Nearly time to go."

I wrapped her in my wings and arms. "Then it sounds like we have a few minutes, how about we just sit here a while?"

I looked down at her and she looked at me again, smiling. "You were never this good at calming me down before."

I smiled. "Well, I guess I've learned a few things then." I kissed her softly on the forehead. "I love you."

Perrin snuggled up to me "I love you too."

Later that day we stepped into the guardians chambers. Terrador and Volteer was present, along with Flame and Ember. "Ah, Salutations to you and yours!" Volteer said. Flame rolled his eyes.

I dipped my head in greeting. "So, who am I going to next?"

"And where's Cyril?" Perrin asked.

"You will be going nowhere," Terrador said. "And as for Cyril, he's bringing The candidate for Ice guardian to the temple, they're in Warfang, so it was no problem."

"Alright." I said. "So we just wait for them to come back?"

"That's right." Flame said.

I turned to him. "Flame, Ember, it's been a while, how are you?"

Ember smiled and took a step closer to Flame, "It's great, he's still getting used to the duties, but Spyro says Ignitus would be proud."

Flame blushed and looked out the window "I'm just trying my hardest."

I grinned, I wouldn't like a public job like guardian myself, I didn't envy him. "So, Terrador, what am I supposed to test them on?"

Terrador chuckled. "Heh, quick decision making and aggression, two traits not often found in Ice dragons." Just then, Cyril returned. As he walked in with the dragon. We turned to face at them and my eyes grew wide.

"No way!"

Back in the forest

Zoulu walked through the forest to the clearing where she and Valcor had been meeting. As she got closer, she felt the feeling of lightning in the air that accompanied his presence. She finally broke through the trees to find an empty field. She looked around, confused, then saw the air shimmering between a couple of trees. She grinned and shot a small spark at it.

She heard a cry, then the air solidified into Valcors form. "Oww! Zoulu that stung!"

"Yeah, well I was just showing you your spell doesn't work as well as you think."

Rubbing his face with his wing, he said "It's not magic, I used electromagnetism to divert the trajectory of photons around my body to deluminate myself."

"What?"

He grinned, "No idea, that's what Volteer called it."

Zoulu shook her head, "I don't know, it might work in the dark, but in daylight once I was looking for it; it was pretty easy to make out." She walked up to him "So, what do have planned for today?"

He shrugged, "Nothing really."

"Good, 'cause I want to introduce you to my family."

Valcor froze and looked at Zoulu with a look of nervousness, almost fear. "I-I don't think that's a good idea Zoulu."

Zoulu looked at him quizzically, "And why is that?"

He looked down. "With my past, pretty sure your parents wouldn't approve."

Zoulu sighed. "Valcor, you've told me, and I don't care. What happened then had nothing to do with you, you're nothing like him, understand? Once they get to know you, they'll like you too."

"Alright, if you're sure…"

Zoulu grinned at him. "I'm sure." So they took off and flew toward Zoulus house.

When they arrived, Zoulu went into the house while Valcor paced nervously outside. Eventually he heard the door open and turned to see the three of them standing just outside. He smiled sheepishly.

"Mom, Dad, this is Valcor." Zoulu said.

Spyro stepped forward, an unreadable look in his eyes. He dipped his head in greeting. When Valcor had returned the gesture, Spyro asked "So you're Valcor? I have a few questions."

Valcor gulped and nodded.

"First, about your color. I thought I was the only purple dragon left."

"We-well, I'm not really a purple dragon, it's just my scales. I'm an electricity dragon."

Spyro nodded. "That answers my second question too. My next is this: What do you see in my daughter?"

Zoulu blushed from next to Cynder Valcor paled a bit. "I-I-um…"

Spyro shook his head "Quit stuttering, you sound like I'm going to kill you or something."

"That's not an impossibility…" Valcor thought then looked at Spyro. "I've lived most of my life as a nomad, I've never felt attached to anyone. Not even my parents. I never needed anyone for anything, but one day Zoulu, that is, your daughter followed me to the forest one night and once I got to know her I realized I no longer felt alone. There was someone who understood me, who didn't shun me. She was my first friend."

Spyro listened to all this and remained impassive, though inside he felt a kinship. He knew what it was like to feel like an outcast, before he met Ignitus, there were times in the dragonfly village when he felt like a freak. Behind this, Cynder felt like she understood him completely, She knew what it felt like to be alone and hated for something superficial, Even after her role in Malefors downfall it had taken years for the public to completely trust her.

Spyro nodded. "That's a good answer. Now tell me, if you've lived your whole life alone, where did you receive your element training? Even if you attend school, there's no one close to your level, No one I know could have taught you to control that power."

Valcor looked down to hide the look of growing terror on his face, it was coming to the moment he had dreaded, revealing his deepest secret. "I-I was trained by my parents."

Spyro cocked an eyeridge, "Who were…"

Valcor gulped again "M-Malefor and-" Suddenly he was hit with a tail and sent sprawling. He looked up to see Spyros eyes glowing white, his scales had a dark tint to them.

"What?" Spyro growled, sounding like a multitude speaking in unison. "Your Malefors…SPAWN? Get out of here now and never let me see your face again! If you come within a thousand miles of Zoulu or anyone else, I will hunt you down and reunite you with your father!"

Panic stricken, Valcor scrambled to his feet and jumped in the air, rocketing off in an explosion of lightning. Zoulu and Cynder just stared on in shock. Eventually Spyro retuned to normal and turned back to his family, Cynder was glaring and Zoulu was nowhere to be found, though he could hear crying from inside the house. He stared right back at Cynder, "What?" then he walked past her without a second glance and locked himself in their room.

Back at the temple

As Cyril walked in with the potential guardian I gawked open mouthed. "No way! You?"

Icera smiled back. "Hello James, fancy seeing you here, what are you here for?"

Volteer stepped forward "James has come forthwith to accurately gauge your potential for fulfilling your responsibilities as the guardian of solidified hydrogen oxide."

Perrin had a lost look on her face, I leaned over and whispered :I'm here to see if she's good enough to be ice guardian."

Perrin rolled her eyes, "Does he always talk like that?"

I laughed softly "No, he kept it short this time." I stepped forward. "Icera, Cyril has chosen you to succeed him as Ice guardian, do you accept?"

Icera nodded, "If I didn't I wouldn't be here, would I?"

"Very true, I think I've got a good test, I think-"

"If I may interrupt James," Cyril said, "I think Iceras past has proved her worth, don't you think?"

Caught off guard, I turned to the other three. "What do you think?"

"Absolutely not!" Terrador said. "No matter her credentials, she must be tested."

Flame thought for a moment, then said "I've heard a lot about you, Icera. I've heard your extremely smart, but there's a difference between having brains and knowing how to use them. I personally would like to see you tested."

Volteer nodded. "I concur."

Icera smiled and raised an eye, "What Volteer, no speech?"

"What can I converse to favorably negotiate with you? I'm fatigued."

Cyril sighed, "I guess I'm out voted, What's your test James?"

"Well, I'll need your help Cyril, I want to test Icera with a debate."

"Cyril thought for a moment, then said "Ok Icera, James your opinion is right, He will assume the opposing viewpoint. The question is this, If Malefor were to rise again and corrupt thousands of dragons, Spyro and Cynder among them, and form an army to march on us, would it be right to end their lives to get to Malefor?"

Icera looked shocked that he would ask such a question, Cyril beamed triumphantly. Eventually Iceras face hardened And I could tell she was remembering how she was before she met Cynder, Then she said "Yes. If it's the only way to kill Malefor I'd do it myself."

"Dang," I thought. "She's acting like her old self, cold, brutal logic. Exactly what's needed in this conversation, but I think I have a way to disrupt it." Then aloud I said "But they're still in there somewhere, Cynder proves that, you would condemn thousands of innocents to death to end the life of a single tyrant?"

"Of course, Only Spyro and Cynder have fought off the corruption, and if they're both lost too, there would be no way to reverse it, leaving death."

"So you've put a price on souls? Just anyone gets to decide who lives and who dies?"

"That's how the world works James, The only rules are the ones you make."

"Well, I believe that we were created by a higher power and that only He can judge us"

"That may be but until I see proof, I'm going to make my own decisions."

I sighed, we were getting off subject and I pointed it out, then I said "Alright, we both have valid points, now instead of telling me why I'm wrong, convince me that you're right. Why is sacrificing all those souls worth it?"

Icera thought for quite a while. Just when I thought she had given up, she looked up, her face had softened and when she spoke, it was with the voice of a mother soothing a hurt child. "Because James, if they're not stopped, then everyone still free will be wiped out, leaving only the corrupted to live in torment for the rest of their lives. If Malefor doesn't just kill them. So defeating them would be saving those who can be saved while giving the corrupted the only release left to them."

I smiled back, then turned to the guardians. "I like it, what do you think?"

Terrador nodded. "It's the right thing to be done in that situation."

"Out of all the options available, it makes the most sense." Cyril said.

Flame said "I agree, I would do whatever it takes to protect Ember, and if she was corrupted I wouldn't leave her in Malefors grip."

Ember looked at Flame "And if that happened, "I think I would want death rather than watch myself kill innocents."

I turned to Perrin, "What about you?"

She shrugged, "I really don't know much about what you were saying but If Laura were in danger I would kill to protect her. I agree with Icera."

I looked at Icera, "Well Icera, your argument makes sense from a logical and moral point of view, I don't have anything to counter that argument and personally agree with you. Congratulations, you pass the first test."

Icera looked relieved, but quickly regained her composure. "So it's the duel next?"

I nodded, "Let's go."

Spyros house

Spyro walked to Zoulus room, ever since they had started their next to last year in school Zoulu and Selena had chosen to stay with Spyro and Cynder, Fever staying with Spyder and James with Perrin, Ever since she had started dating Ryan, Selena had shown more inclination to live on her own, but hadn't announced it yet.

As he got nearer, he heard quiet sobbing. It stabbed at his heart, it had been a day and she hadn't even eaten. He had hoped she would get over it but Cynders icy glares told him if he didn't do something he was in deep trouble.

So it was these circumstances that had led to him going to Zoulus room. He taped on the door, "Zoulu? You in there?"

Nothing.

"Zoulu, I'm coming in, Ok?" As he walked in he saw Zoulu on her bed, tear stains running down her cheeks, her eyes having long since run out.

"Wh-what do you want?" she said.

Spyro sighed and sat down next to the door. "Did you know about him?"

"About Malefor and Byancyra? Yes. And unlike some purple vindictive jerk I don't care about who his parents were, just who HE is."

"Zoulu, did you ever feel abnormal power around him?"

"You mean his strength with electricity? Yeah."

Spyro stared into space, "It's not just his parents Zoulu, with that power if he's deceiving us he could really hurt all of us."

Zoulu muttered something under her breath, Spyro looked at her "What?"

"I said the same could be said about you!"

Spyro suddenly remembered the cheetahs from Hunters village, how they had taken years to trust him because he had the potential to end up like Malefor. "Zoulu, I just want to keep you safe, I don't know anything about him."

Zoulus head snapped up to glare at him "Did it ever occur to ask? NO! you just glow it up and knock him silly and threaten him with death! For the purple savior, you sure know how to give people a chance! Did it ever occur to you that his situation is almost exactly like Moms? Huh?"

Spyro said nothing.

"And, did you know when I first met him, he was at a marker he made in honor of his parents, not to remember them, but to remember what they did to the world so he would never fall down that path himself. Did you know whenever I even say "Malefor" he looks like he's gonna cry? He hates himself for being born! Did you know he's absolutely terrified of you and Mom because he was scared you would do exactly what you did? I told him, promised him you wouldn't, and look what happened! You made me a liar and scarred him! I know this because I gave him a chance and I trust him."

For the longest time, neither of them spoke, then Spyro got up and said "I'm sorry Zoulu, but I'm not taking a chance with Malefors spawn. He's lucky I spared him." With that he turned and left thinking "So let Cynder be mad, better mad than dead."

Behind him Zoulu cried.


	18. Ice battle! Chaos unleased!

Kenji stood on a cliff overlooking his forces and sighed. "They're not ready for this." He thought as he reviewed what had been happening the past few weeks.

Kenji had been made a general of some kind of Special Forces unit designed to take out remnants of dark forces scattered around the world. His first assignment had been to destroy what had been described as lost souls wandering the land, unable to die and killing all that they came across. Kenjis force of one hundred "Trained" Cheetahs, two hundred moles armed with experimental hand cannons and twenty dragons had engaged these creatures only to find they were what Kenji knew as "Zombies."

They had fought valiantly, but in the end they had to retreat, half their numbers gone and not a single zombie killed. The zombies were originally cheetahs, slow and stumbling, but no matter what happened, they wouldn't stay down. A few nights later they heard the moans and prepared for an attack, only to find their fallen comrades had added to the ranks, even the few dragons that had fallen from infection rose again, and still able to use their elements!

During that second fight, Kenjis force was in chaos, they were shocked at having to fight their own brothers, though in the end it didn't make any difference, They found the only way to kill a zombie when one cheetahs arrow pierced an ex-dragons eye socket, dropping the beast. After that they had tried to get head shots, but it was difficult at best, arrows and even the hand cannons were too weak to penetrate dragon skull and the cheetah and mole heads were too small to hit with any reliability. Kenji and others trained in close combat managed to behead and brain a good amount, but every fight their forces grew smaller, and the horde bigger.

Now there were a mere fifty left, the moles all gone, and five dragons remaining. Kenji ha sent a hawk to Warfang weeks ago for reinforcements, but at this point he didn't expect a reply. This last night was worse, the horde had been bolstered with voidlings, creatures made of living stone, stone that absorbed all mana, element attacks were completely useless and they moved with speed and strength to match the dragons. Kenji had thought about pulling out, but his forces refused, saying they weren't letting these things advance unhindered, and Kenji refused to simply leave them to their fate. He would fight to the last man. They all would.

Warfang, guardian temple

I was preparing myself for the fight. As emissary… thing… I was supposed to duel Icera, if she won, she would become the new ice guardian. I reviewed all I knew about Ice dragons, they fought like their namesake, with cold precision, never making an unnecessary movement and every strike deadly accurate. Icera on the other hand from what little I've seen lets her emotions take over and fights like a berserker. She avoids attacks sure, but when it comes to attacking, she went all out, putting all her strength into every blow. I knew that was my strategy, if she didn't change her fighting style She would tire herself out long before me, then I would simply take the win by default. It was underhanded, but that was the entire point of the fight.

As I walked out onto the training field inside the temple, I looked around, all my friends were there to watch, Spyro and Cynder, who didn't know who to support, My siblings, Fever, Selena and their loves, Spyder and Ryan. Perrin, Jacy, Sparx, Shimmer and their son, Lumi, now nine. Terrador, Cyril, Volteer, Flame and Ember along with Hunter and Sei. I looked around, curious as to why Zoulu was nowhere to be found. I shrugged. The guardians looked troubled, too troubled for a simple spar. I put it aside and focused on my upcoming battle.

Icera walked out of the opposite tunnel and strode to the field in front of me. She wore some kind of clear armor, it clad her most vulnerable places, her neck and underbelly, as well as wrist pieces that covered her paws, lending large metal claws that gleamed with the curious transparency.

We stood there for a while, waiting for the other to strike. I could tell from her eyes that she would be my hardest fight yet, Spyro may be stronger, but she had more experience that him and Cynder put together.

Suddenly she moved, there was a blur where she was, then she was gone. I barely had time to jump in a random direction before she blurred behind me, I could see three glowing marks where her claws and myself had just been a moment ago. "That's not teleportation! How can she move that fast?" I touched ground and jumped again as her claws streaked through the air again, the whole time I couldn't even see her. The next time I touched I let loose a flare of light that even blinded me. I heard he stumble and shot a beam of light in her direction, making it as wide as I could. I heard the rapid pounding sound that meant I had made contact, almost like a muffled AK-47.

The next thing I knew though she was lunging at me, her clear metal claws extended and seemingly dividing my attack. I stopped and jumped into the air only to be hit by the flat of her tail blade, sending me sprawling. I looked up to se her diving at me, I waited until the last moment then teleported behind her and let loose a barrage of light missiles that exploded on contact. She jumped away with amazing speed, then blurred again, I had no time to react as I felt a colossal impact on my gut, sending me to the ceiling where I stayed.

I looked at myself in confusion; I was frozen to the ceiling! My midsection was encased in a still expanding sheet of ice. I looked down to See Icera coming up again; I turned myself to black mist and drifted away as she stabbed with those claws where my wing had been. As I materialized, I watched in wonder as the point where the claws had hit began to freeze, she pulled her claws free and came at me again. I teleported to the side and shot a light beam at her, She twisted in midair and countered with a rainbow beam of ice energy. The attacks hit and to my surprise hers quickly overwhelmed mine. I felt both hit me, my light blast was like being hit by a train, then I felt nothing but the most intense cold you can imagine.

As I hit the ground, I opened my eyes and everything was distorted. At first, I thought it was my vision, but when I tried to lift my head, I found I couldn't move. I was frozen solid! I started panicking and felt my oxygen quickly vanishing. My vision fading I tried turning to mist to escape, but I found no way out of the ice and solidified. Quickly running out of time I turned to desperate measures. I forced myself to calm down and felt the energy inside me. I felt deeper and found the chaotic swirl of energy was actually ordered by a perfect balance of light and shadow, yin and yang. I exerted my will, took the swirl of light and darkness, and separated it into its two components. The light and dark wanted to re-join and were creating massive energy to try to do so. I channeled it all outward and let it slam back together.

"JAMES!" Perrin screamed as she watched as he got hit by the ice blast and fall to the floor. She jumped up to catch him but Spyro held her back, shaking his head. She turned back to watch as he hit the ground and was quickly covered in ice. Perrin was sobbing as she desperately tried to free herself from Spyros grip.

"Perrin, get a hold of yourself, This fight isn't over yet." Spyro said, Perrin stopped struggling and turned to him.

"What?"

Spyro smiled. "If I know him, he'll find a way out, just watch." She turned and watched as he did that smoke thing, but couldn't find an opening in the ever expanding ice. He went back to normal and seemed to fall unconscious. Perrin heard Spyro gently curse under his breath and let go of Perrin. With a growing sense of horror, she flew across the field to James' side. AS far as she could tell, it was over. At that point, she broke down the rest of the way and started crying uncontrollably. Suddenly she felt herself violently yanked into the air by some unseen force and come to a halt next to Selena, whose eyes glowed with energy.

Just after Perrin was safe, the ice prison glowed with a color she had never seen before, it was bright, but seemed to be the opposite of color, and it hurt her eyes to look at it. Then the not-light grew until it completely covered the ice, they felt an amazing energy, as if all the power in the world was compressed into that one place. Suddenly it shrunk until it was a tiny point inside the ice, then shot out in a massive shockwave that shattered the ice, a column of pure not-light shooting to the ceiling, James in the middle of it, He looked like his dark form, but instead of black, he glowed white, his eyes inky voids.

James raised a claw and a spiral of not-light gathered into a ball, which shrunk till it was invisible, He grabbed it, then hurled it at Icera, She dodged just as the place where she was hovering exploded in a flash of light and a thundering boom, then folded in on itself and disappeared, creating a massive vacuum. Icera flew at James, who didn't move, but a wall of not-light came into being and Icera flew right into it, bouncing off like a fly on a windshield. She opened her mouth and a ball of cyan light formed in he mouth and ice missiles flew out, The storm made it to James, but a thousand vortex's opened and swallowed every last missile, another vortex opening behind him and the ice flying out only to shatter on the opposite wall.

Icera shot a rainbow beam and a larger vortex swallowed it, and opened behind her, she heard it coming and used her speed spell to move out of the way. She then focused on all her frustration at this battle, and everything Byancyra and the Dark Master had done to her, and prepared her fury, before she could though, James looked at her and suddenly he was right there! AS she flew from the impact she realized that speed put her spell to shame, she hit the wall and her diamond armor saved her, sapping her strength to create a cushion of energy that stopped her. She turned back to James as he reverted to normal, all the not-light dissipating, He Fell and hit the ground, too exhausted to move.

As I hit the ground, I prayed my bluff would work. I hadn't expected that kind of control over the chaos energy, I half expected to blow myself up, but I had let my instincts take over and my body seemed to know how to use it. On top of that, chaos seemed to make its own energy, so I was barely taxed by that fury. I extended my mind and felt Iceras mind; she was coming in for the finish. I smiled and turned to shadow just as she hit, I floated above her and focused on the negative energy in me; shooting a stream of black fire at her. It hit her back, pushing her to the ground and causing her own ice attack to imprison her from neck to tail.

I glided to a halt next to her. "Give up?"

The battle lust in her eyes was unchanged, however. "Never." She growled. The ice started cracking and before I could react, it shattered and hit me with razor sharp shards of ice, giving me several small cuts. I jumped back just as she swiped with her tail blade and in the same motion swept an ice beam from right to left, right where my head was a moment ago.

Icera charged me, using all combinations of element and physical attacks. I had to admit, she was strong, but I pointed out her weakness easily as she over swung, again. I rushed in and pressed my wing blades to her throat in an X shape. "You're leaving yourself too open." I told her. She lunged for me, jaws open. I jumped back and she tried to charge an ice fury. I sighed and prepared for it. As she released it there was a surge of energy and everything around her gained a layer of frost and an icy blue tint, then everything, floor and all shattered like dropped crystal, hovering and orbiting her like a deadly galaxy. Then it flew outwards at such speed there were several thousand cracks as they broke the sound barrier, As the projectiles reached me, they phased through me, my body turning to smoke and solidifying.

Icera stared at me. I shrugged, "What use are strong attacks if they don't hit? You need to think of something else." I told her, placing emphasis on "Think."

She then resumed her all out assault while I just stood there, every blow phasing through me, then after a particularly powerful ice blast turned my entire body to shadow, (It's weird feeling, I'm telling you.) I condensed the shadow into a solid sphere and rammed her, sending her flying a few yards. From the shadow ball I morphed back into my body and stood there, looking bored.

Icera came at me then, but differently, instead of charging, she walked toward me at an angle, Like a predator examining a possible meal. Then she moved in a blur and was gone. I was prepared for this and jumped, anticipating the attack from the rear, but it never came. Instead she appeared above me, claws outstretched. I transformed to shadow, but an instant later re-solidified. "What-" I started as Icera hit me, driving me to the ground. A mind numbing pain shot through my back and was gone.

I looked at myself after Icera had gotten off. My chest was once again encased in ice, six rends in my flesh frozen shut. I tried to turn to shadow but nothing happened. I got dizzy, but that was it. I opened my mouth and shot a blast of light that shattered the ice. I got up and started to prepare a counterattack, but my legs gave from under me. As I hit the ground, I was blinded and deafened by pure pain. I faintly heard someone screaming and forced myself to come back. I then realized the person screaming was me. I looked down, the ice gone, my wounds were bleeding freely, causing my weakness. As I moved my neck, I felt the terrible grinding pain again and realized there must still be shattered ice inside, shredding my insides like broken glass.

I quickly stopped moving and focused my mana and will to try and stop the bleeding, It only helped because my pulse slowed slightly. I was feeling faint, as my vision blurred I thought a word better left unsaid, then my head fell to the floor with one last blast of pain.

I woke up later in the infirmary; I tried to get up, but was too weak. I looked at myself, my smaller wounds were healed, but my chest was bandaged, a dull ache throbbing deep inside my chest. I groaned as I raised my head and saw Perrin and Selena walk over, they had been reading some sort of medical book.

Perrin reached my side first. "James, are you ok?" Before I could answer, Selena reached us.

"James, how are you feeling?"

I chuckled. "You two sound like doctors."

Selena smiled, "We ARE healing dragons."

"And I am a doctor!" Perrin said.

"Makes sense I guess." I said. "I feel a bit weak, and my chest hurts, but other than that I'm fine. What happened with my chest?"

"I think I can answer that." said a voice behind me. I turned to see Icera lying down by the window, her freezing armor gone. She looked at me, a fire in her eyes. "That was a great fight you put up James, but I'm afraid I'm too much for you."

"That's bull." I said "I could have beaten you and you know it."

"But you didn't, did you?" She said, a smile playing across her face.

"Can you get out of here?" Perrin said. "You did this to him."

Icera shook her head, "No, James did this to himself, He hasn't trained enough to learn the simple technique of gauging ones energy."

I looked quizzically at her. Icera smiled again.

"You thought you were testing me, thought I was fighting berserk, right? I wanted you to think that. I have more energy than you know, nephew. I knew about your shadow technique and knew you used it as an ultimate defense, But you don't even know yourself enough to know how much energy that move uses. I knew you would run out of energy sooner or later and just fought until you overused your power."

"What? But that's impossible! Right after that I used light to break the ice!"

This time it was Selena who shook her head like I was an idiot. "After that display of chaos back there, you should know as well as I that shadow and light elements use different energies, You have roughly the same amount of each in you, Yin and Yang. Positive and negative, Most dragons consume both at once to fuel their element. But you only use positive energy for light and negative for shadow. You ran out of energy for two reasons: One, That move uses a large amount of energy and two, every dragon has differing amounts of energy in them, and because of your heart, you have more light energy than dark. Malefor for instance had almost no light in him, which is why all his elements were tainted by shadow."

I began to understand why I lost, but something else bugged me. "Alright, but what about this wound? I would think two healers, one of them a spellcaster could heal this."

"Both of us are to blame there." Icera said. "My crystal claws left razor sharp ice in your body, the damage caused by them made it difficult for these two to heal you, that and your energy balance is upset, meaning your body will take much longer to heal and most of the energy they sent to you was siphoned into resetting the balance. If you hadn't used every last iota of shadow in your body, that wouldn't be the case."

I nodded. "So what? I wait for my energy to come back?"

"Pretty much." She said. She turned to leave, but at the door she turned and said "Oh yes, I almost forgot. The guardians have received word from General Kenji, He's suffered heavy losses and requests reinforcements, but only the strongest, so Myself, Flame, Perrin, Spyro and his family, a few others and Ryan will be heading out to support them. Ember will stay here to care for you." Before I could object, she said "And if you want to come, try standing, and then imagine having to fly several hundred miles in your condition." I grunted, then tried to go back to sleep.

Later that day

Everyone was ready to go, Zoulu still hadn't come out her room and just electrified the floor anytime someone asked her if she was coming. Spyro had asked Sparx to keep an eye on her. To which he said "Oh, sure buddy! Don't talk to me in months, then come ask me to baby-sit! It seems all I'm good for is menial labor! Why don't I ever get any action?"

"They're walking corpses that can't be killed, Sparx, and anyone they bite turns into one of them." Spyro said.

"….Never mind."

Spyro told Sparx to tell Hunter or a guardian if Zoulu left or a purple dragon that wasn't him showed up. After that, they jumped into the air and flew north, to the mountains. Unbeknownst to them they were also headed for an encounter at Iceras old home that would change everything forever.


	19. Love hurts, an immortal enemy

The mountains were coming into view, they were heading north, so the days grew oh so longer and the nights oh so colder. This was one such night, they were almost there, but there was no moon, and it threatened to rain. As sharp as a dragon's sight is, they couldn't fly blind in a storm.

The group settled down and tried to get some sleep, but soon after they drifted off, the rain started. Because of their northern location and the cold front coming in, the rain came down hard and cold. As they tried to erect a shelter of some sort, they found the rain started to freeze to their scales. Finally Spyro and another earth dragon grew tired and combined their powers to carve a small cliff into the land with a large, but stable overhang. As everyone gathered underneath, Ryan used his powers to grow plants along the lip, creating a thick curtain that sheltered them from the rain, all the while, telling Spyro how he did it.

Selena formed a ball of magic that hovered in the air, providing light while Flame tried to get a fire going in the wet grass.

With Ryan coaching; Spyro delved into this strange new power and focused similarly, to how he fueled his earth element. Also giving it the life of fire. After a few failed attempts, Spyro successfully used the nature element to grow a tree devoid of water, perfect for burning.

After the fire was started, Everyone gathered around to thaw. Spyro sat next to his wife, Cynder. Their son, Fever lay next to his fiancée, Spyder. Spyros daughter, Selena sat with Ryan, still dating. The new fire guardian sat with Sei, Cynders brother as they talked about their past adventures. Icera stayed to herself, reminiscing while Perrin and Jacy sat together, talking about their lives before they became dragons. Also there were several other dragons, part of a spec-ops force, they were mostly fire, but out of the five there were an earth dragon, and surprisingly a poison dragon by the name of Cyan.

Cyan was used to either being mistaken for an earth dragon because of his green color (which is how he ended up on the force in the first place) or receiving almost as many looks as Cynder used to. He stared at her, they had been good friends during the war and it had devastated him when the news came that she had died deep in the core. When she with Spyro emerged unscathed a few weeks later, he realized he felt an attraction to her, but before he could announce his feelings, she had begun seeing Spyro publicly. It crushed him at first, but he soon realized that he was happy because she was. Spyro was a good friend too and he would never do anything to betray them.

Eventually everyone had fallen asleep, and as the fire died down, the storm lessened and eventually abated some time before dawn. When they awoke, they left their shelter to find the morning greeting them with a field of grass to the horizon. Glittering as a million frosted blades of grass caught the morning sun, which poked through the clouds. The remaining moisture in the air refracting the light and sent it to earth in golden rays, a rainbow arching over the sun was set off by the blue and pink sky. The crisp, clean tasting air finalized what could be described as the perfect morning.

It betrayed none of the carnage that was soon to follow.

Warfang

Zoulu had eventually stopped crying long enough to realize she was alone, everyone had said they were leaving, and now there was no one else around. She also realized she was hungry. She got up and went to the kitchen. When she got there, she found Sparx and his family, Shimmer, and his son. Lumi.

Seeing the surprised look on her face, Sparx said "Babysitting, and no, were not leaving. You should eat, from what Spyro said, you haven't had any food in three days at least."

"Wow, three days?" she wondered, then went to the cabinets and found something to eat. As she sat down at the table, Lumi said "Hey Zoulu? How come you're still here?" His comment made the wounds open all over again as she remembered what happened. Suddenly she didn't feel like eating.

Seeing her face, Shimmer said, "Quit Lumi, she's been going through a lot lately and probably doesn't want to talk about it."

Lumi's crimson glow dimmed somewhat, "Oh, sorry Zoulu."

"It's nothing to worry about." She mumbled as she got up from the table.

"Whoa little lady, Where do you think you're going?" Sparx said as he flitted in front of her.

"Out."

"But where?" he persisted.

"OUT." She growled in a low voice, her head still pointing at the ground, but sparks started to fly from her. Sparx quickly got out of range and she left before anything else could be said.

As she left the house, she leapt into the air and took off, straining her wings, relishing the pain that distracted her from her pain. Not realizing where she was going, she found herself in the clearing where she first met Valcor. She alighted on the ground and walked over to the marker Valcor made, which as she now knew, told Valcor of his parents' atrocities, as well as not their death dates, as she thought, but their birthdays and the days they turned from the light to walk in darkness. Zoulu felt a pressure well up inside her chest, and desperately wanting to release it, she unleashed the fullest extent of her powers.

Back at Spyros house, Sparx was talking with Valcor, who had shown up wanting to try to make peace with Spyro.

"Look, buddy. I've got no beef with you. You didn't try to eat me, so you're cool in my book, but my brother gave me specific instructions. I won't tell him you were here though."

Valcor sighed, "Isn't there anything I could do to prove I'm not a threat?"

"Sorry, It's not me you have to prove yourself too, plus she's not even here."

"What? I thought you said she stayed behind?"

"She did, but-" Suddenly there was a massive roar that shook the ground, They all turned to the noise to see a column of yellow light at least a half mile wide shoot into the sky, vaporizing the clouds for miles. Valcor could feel the energy course through him, making him want to send out a bolt in turn, but he also felt distilled emotion sweep over him, the dragonflies felt it too, as they shrunk back from the source. The pain he could feel alarmed Valcor, and he knew of only two dragons beside himself who could generate that kind of power and Spyro wasn't here.

Valcor charged lightning into his legs and prepared to take off before Sparx flew in front of him. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Zoulus the only one capable of a blast like that, besides me. And not even I could survive releasing that much energy all at once."

Sparx looked taken aback, "You mean?"

Valcor nodded, "If another electricity dragon doesn't reach her soon, she'll have killed herself." With that he released the stored energy in his legs and jumped, hurling himself into the air so fast he had to close his eyes. He opened his wings halfway and poured electricity into his muscles, flapping his wings in muscle spasms faster than he could move normally. Soon he could hear nothing as he left sound behind, within minutes he reached Zoulu, he arced down and skidded to a stop amidst the charred forest around him. He ran to Zoulus side and found her unconscious.

He touched her and delved into the few powers inherited from his father, he opened his eyes and saw the world as it truly is, everything was made of light, stronger life forces had brighter light, whereas objects like stone appeared as transparent, ghost-like. He looked at Zoulu and gasped, her light was almost non existent, if he were in a cave where a firefly would blind you, he would barely be able to see her life-force.

His father, the dark master, Malefor, had used this power to detect his enemies before they showed themselves, and to exert his will over someone, like Cynder. Valcor put it to better use, he felt his own energy, a supernova in a galaxy of light, and created a metaphorical pathway between their souls. In his eyes though, he could see a river of light taking his energy and pouring it into her.

It seemed no matter how much he gave her, her hungry body used it to correct the imbalance of power and it slipped away, like filling a barrel with no bottom. Eventually he could feel her energy rise somewhat. Encouraged by this, he put more energy into her, within moments he was too tired to continue. Satisfied she wouldn't die he cut the connection and looked at himself, shocked to see he has lost a massive amount of energy.

His vision blurred, then returned to normal, and he saw Zoulu, unconscious but breathing, as well as a group of dragons, moles and cheetahs around them. His vision blurred again and this time went black.

Northern mountain range

They had come. Kenji had lured these walking corpses too similar to zombies for his comfort to the foothills of the mountains. He hoped with their partial brain death they would be able to scale the cliffs here and they would be able to pick them off from safety.

He had his remaining forces in position, as the monsters came into range, the cheetahs let loose volley after volley of flaming arrows, they had soaked the ground earlier in pitch, and as the monsters walked on it, it combusted, the beasts unfortunate enough to be in it would be cremated. As they watched, more creatures stopped before the blaze and reached out to touch it; their limbs burned, but hey felt nothing and stood there, transfixed as they burned. Suddenly, Kenji heard a scream to his left, he turned to see a voidling disemboweling a cheetah, several more were close behind.

The zombies heard too, and as one, they turned to the source and ignoring the flames, lurched toward them. Kenji cursed as he saw them emerge from the flames, not stopping until their bodies were gone; they now had to fight walking fireballs! Kenji released a blast of wind in a thrust of his hand, Throwing up the flames and making them much hotter, a few corpses in the blaze finally dropped, more were pushed into the inferno. Kenji then raised his other hand above his head and a blue ball of fire formed, he threw it into their midst and had time to watch it explode, throwing bodies everywhere before he heard a roar, He turned to see a voidling bearing down on him.

He smiled, as the stone beast hit him, he grabbed it and rolled with the force, throwing the creature to the ground where it's skull shattered, the rest turning to dust. He got up and saw several more converging on him. He waved his arm and a crescent of flames flew from them and made the voidlings halt for a moment. In that moment Kenji had held his hand out, the air shimmered, and formed into a sword with a gold hilt, a bluish blade, the entire thing was shaped like a key. "Keberdu." He whispered, then ran at the voidlings, the keyblade bursting into flames. He slashed at the first one, and with some resistance, he put a large gash in the side, it glowed orange. He turned and went to one knee, severing the hind legs at the knee, then launched into the air, performed a single flip, and midway through, slashed and cleaved the skull of the beast in two.

"One down." Kenji said, looking at the opposition, "A million to go." He ran at another voidling attacking a dragon.

As the fight wore on, they had lost another five men. The zombies couldn't get to them and were easy pickings, but the voidlings were a large threat. Just when Kenji thought they had the upper hand, He saw forms on the horizon. He turned to see several flying things headed their way. Relived the reinforcements had made it; he waved his hand in greeting. He saw a gleam of light from the leader, which grew into a beam that nearly took his hand off. Kenji dropped to the ground and upon closer examination, saw these were something else entirely.

They looked like guivers, semi-retarded poisonous cousins of the dragons with no front legs, but they were larger. Furthermore, they had what looked like trails of smoke or tentacles coming off their backs, the whites of their eyes were black with glowing red irises. Kenji threw a fireball at them, but at that range, they had plenty of time to avoid. Within minutes, they were upon them. If their chances had been bad before, they were hopeless now. These things were clearly very intelligent, and the darkness that came from them showed they were being controlled somehow.

After dueling one in the air for several minutes, Kenji released his Keberdus power, It burst into flame, then a gust of wind extinguished it, leaving the new blade in it's place.

The keyblade had grown in width, splitting down the middle, the front part was shaped like a thin machete, the back part like a straight ninja sword, a prong coming off it like a tooth of a key and exploding into a flash shape at the end. The hand guard was open unlike most keyblades and the entire thing radiated power.

Kenji flew at the creature, swinging Keberdu, the creature blocked the first blow with a talon and thrust forward with it's bony skull. Kenji dodged to the side and stabbed at a horn, it slipped between the two blades and Kenji twisted, flipping the whole creature and the force snapping its neck. It fell to the ground, where zombies converged on it.

Kenji was about to go for the next one when he looked down and saw a flash of purple, He followed the light and saw Spyro on the ground, surrounded by dragons. Lenji let out a whoop and flew down to join them. 

When he got there, Spyro came up to him. "Heard you could use some help."

Kenji nodded. "You arrived just in time, shall we?" As one, they jumped into the air.

Warfang

Eventually, Zoulu came to and after many accounts of what happened, realized how foolish her actions were and how she owed her life to Valcor. She thought to herself, "I don't care what happens now, if he'll have me, I'm staying with Valcor." She walked to the hospital and went to his room, where he still slept. James was up and about, but only with assistance. They met in the hall and Zoulu shared everything that had happened recently with him, almost breaking down again.

"Hey, Zoulu." James said. "Don't be that way. As a human, I was as emotional as a brick, and I still cried more than you did. You have a strong heart, crying won't change the situation and you need to be strong to support Valcor, remember he's going through this too, and he almost gave his life for you."

Zoulu nodded and they walked to his room. When they got there, They found him awake, reading a scroll he had delivered. He looked up and his intense purple eyes lit up when they saw Zoulu.

"Hey! I thought you'd never come! I've been bored in here by myself! I would have left ages ago, but they won't let me until my energy recovers, or some bull like that."

James smiled. "I know what you mean. I'm itching to be out there, helping my family."

Valcor nodded. "So, Zoulu, feeling better?"

Zoulu felt her face grow hot. "Yeah, thanks to you."

He waved it off. "Eh, don't mention it, I'm sure you would have done the same for me." He said, then looked at her with a certain amount of uncertainty, "Right?"

"Of course!" She said quickly. She turned to James, "Could we have a minute alone?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea, what with dad and all?" James asked.

"If Dad doesn't like it, he knows where to shove it." Zoulu said venomously.

"Dang…" was all James said as he made his way out.

Zoulu turned back to Valcor and walked over. "Valcor, why did you save me?"

Valcors dark purple scales turned a little darker around the face. "The same reason you spent a week crying. The same reason I risked meeting Spyro in the first place. I really like you Zoulu, and I'm hoping we can get everything straightened out with your family so we can see each other again."

"But you almost gave your life for mine!" She exclaimed.

"And I'd do it again, you're the only one who thinks my life has worth, so if you died, what would I have to live for?"

Zoulu averted her eyes. "Wow." She thought. "Does he really feel that strongly toward me?" She was about to ask another question, but suddenly Valcor was as taught as a bowstring. "What?" She asked.

"It's… something bad." He said. "His eyes grew wide "Something really bad!" He got up and ran to the window.

"Valcor, what are you doing?"

"Sorry, but if I don't, I have a horrible feeling they're going to die!"

"What? Who?" She asked.

"EVERYONE!" He shouted, and with a blast of lightning, shot off into the sky, disappearing over the horizon in less than a minute. Zoulu could only watch him go.

Mountain pass

Spyro and Kenji had led the monsters into a narrow pass Spyro said it was insanity, as they now had no escape, but Kenji insisted that where he came from, there was an ancient battle where a small group of warriors held off the worlds largest army this way.

"And what happened in this battle?" Spyro asked.

"They felled over a million enemies!" Kenji said.

"Kenji, what happened?"

"Well, they uh, fought to the last man." He finished sheepishly.

Spyro rolled his eyes. "Great, you've led us into a deathtrap." Soon after, though, he saw the wisdom in this plan. The enemy couldn't surround them, so they could focus their defense into a small area, as the bodies piled around them, Spyro thought it might actually work.

The universe just loved proving him wrong.

There was a great rumbling and a mountain just stood up! Spyros eyes along with everyone else grew wide in horror as they witnessed the impossible.

The Destroyer.


	20. Battle scars

Spyro couldn't believe it. It was the destroyer. "But how?" he thought, his will quickly draining from him. If this was the same beast, the tunnels inside were too narrow for him to navigate now. It would be impossible to destroy the inner crystal, or even catch it. That's when they all noticed two things. One, it clearly had no desire to form the ring of fire, and two, it was headed straight for them.

Cyan among several other dragons saw the destroyer, forgotten memories of pain and destruction rose anew, and they took off to attack the beast. They heard cries behind them, warnings. But they ignored them. For Cyan he remembered how the world shattered, his parents pushing him out of the way, as they fell into an abyss, they sacrificed themselves for him. And one of these things had caused that fissure to open. He would destroy it or die trying.

Kenji watched as the group of dragons flew at the destroyer, the voidlings and flying creatures had long departed in fear of the monstrosity before them, the last of the zombies were being slayed as they spoke. He watched as the lead dragon spewed a torrent of poison that hit the beast and corroded the stone skin, the creature bled magma, but it quickly cooled into new stone. The other dragons came in range and opened with a barrage of earth attacks, energy flails, missiles, earth armor strikes, and even a fury went off, dealing superficial damage to it.

Kenji watched in growing horror as the beast started to glow, radiating heat.

Cyan gave it his all, but no matter what happened, he could never seem to deal any lasting wound. He saw a dark crystal embedded in it's flesh, as he started to attack, he felt his mana slip away, just after that, the air started vibrating, it's temperature increasing dramatically. It soon became unbearable and he turned and saw his comrades literally spontaneously combust, emitting a high whistling sound and screaming in agony.

He then realized his scales were gone, turned to ash, he couldn't feel anything and watched as his skin liquefied, his wings burn to the bone. Everything went dark and his last thoughts were. "I tried Mom, Dad. Now I get to se you again, at last." He opened his eyes and saw a bright light amidst the darkness that consumed him.

Cynder saw this happening and when the last attacker had dropped from the sky as a pile of charcoal, she realized she had tears in her eyes. "Cyan." She said to no one in particular, "You were as good a friend as any, rest well." Then with an inner fire in her eyes, she leapt into the air after the beast.

Spyro saw Cynder and went after her. He quickly caught up "Cyn! What are you doing? We can't take it on! Not this time!" He looked back at the destroyer and watched as it opened its mouth and a wave of fire large enough to consume Warfang spread and roared toward the defenders. There was a flash and they saw a bubble consisting of hexagons of light appear and reflect the entire nova, when the flames died, He could see Kenji, The keyblade, Keberdu held above his head, shining like a new star.

"You see?" Cynder said, "We MIGHT die if we attack, but we will die if we don't."

Spyro nodded and raced for the nearest dark crystal, releasing a blast of convexity that quickly disintegrated it. He looked and saw Cynder do the same. They attacked a few more crystals, but soon felt the air vibrate as it had before. "Spyro! RUN!" Cynder yelled both in the air and through their mental connection. They both got away just before the air behind them caught fire. Cynder turned around in synch with Spyro and she blew a tornado into the blaze, creating a tunnel of air which Spyro cooled with a blast of icy energy, This super chilled air made it's way to the destroyers mouth and made it's way inside, the blast caused the destroyer to slow somewhat, but it almost instantly thawed. The fire attack had stopped though and Spyro and Cynder resumed their attack.

Kenji had unleashed a thundaga spell, smiting the remaining enemies. Of his original force; six remained, including himself. He turned to the reinforcements, "Selena, Ryan, Stay here and help the injured! Everyone else, on me!" He yelled, and then took off toward the destroyer.

As they all got closer, they could see masses of magma drop from it's torso and solidify, Kenji watched in growing realization, it was making golems! He cursed, this could not get any worse! The golems looked up at Spyro and Cynder and giant wings of fire spread from their backs, their legs receding into their bodies.

"Why?" he thought. "Why can't I keep my big mouth shut?" Kenji charged a blizzara and swung Keberdu, a flash of blue flying from his blade. It struck the nearest golem and froze it solid. Just when Kenji thought It was done though, the ice glowed red and vaporized, the golem continuing toward his friends.

Spyro turned it time to see something big ram him. As he regained his balance, he saw a flying golem! He opened his mouth and loosed a blast of convexity at its head, which shattered, revealing a dark crystal, which he finished with a beam of light. The creature fell to the ground, surprised at the easy defeat, Spyro was caught off guard as three more came at him. These ones were just as easy. By this time, Cynder and the others had joined the fight, but as it wore on, by process of elimination, only the smart ones were left, they could no longer get hits, as these golems knew when to evade. At the same time, neither could the golems score a hit on the dragons.

Spyro and Cynder joined paws and combined their energies, mixing convexity. They released it at the golems a wave of purple energy hit them and the beasts turned to dust on contact. Suddenly, Spyro and Cynder felt drained and barely had the energy to land safely, as they looked up, they saw the destroyer had somehow pushed it's crystal heart out of it's body, draining all their energy, Spyro and Cynder watched as one by one their friends and family fell from the sky, too tired to attack.

Selena was using a spell to absorb all the energy from her surroundings to form a mass of energy. However, try as she might, all the energy was already trapped in the crystal. The destroyer locked eyes with her father, and a small, white fireball shot from its mouth, Selena could feel the energy in it, she knew it would kill him. Using the very last dregs of her strength, she formed a shield over him, the fire hit, and while the shield took some of it, it quickly buckled and Selena watched in horror as her father was consumed.

Spyro only knew pain for a brief instant before he was surrounded by cold. He opened his eyes and could see nothing. When the nothing faded, he realized that after Selenas defense had failed, Cynder had used her powers to save him. He saw that both Cynder and Selena were passed out, no longer having the energy to stay conscious. He tried to get up and was met with pain; he looked down and saw he hadn't completely escaped the inferno. Half of his body was scorched and to his disgust, half of his tail was bleached bone. It was then that he looked up and saw the destroyer had its fist raised, ready to crush them all. He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable. It never came.

Spyro opened his eyes, it was blurring around the edges, but he saw the destroyer looking up at something, he wearily followed it's gaze and saw Valcor hovering a safe distance off. "What's he doing here?" Spyro thought. Just then, Valcor started giving off lightning; it looked like a plasma globe, except the lightning bolts numbered in the hundreds and pulverized the ground where they struck. Valcor folded his wings and there was a streak of yellow that shot through the destroyers' chest, a massive explosion coming from the exit wound. Valcor stopped his strike and flared his wings, pivoting to face the destroyer. The beast groaned as fire started to consume it Valcor started radiating electricity again, and he was gone, a matrix of yellow streaks crisscrossing through the destroyer, all in an instant, after Valcor reappeared, the destroyer literally fell apart, explosions all over it tearing it apart. Valcor turned and dove toward the fallen defenders; the last thing Spyro saw before he passed out was Valcor land beside him.

When Spyro awoke, He realized he was immobilized. He looked around and saw his family, minus Zoulu and James. Cynder was the first to notice him wake up. She ran over to him embracing him. "Oh Spyro! Thank the ancestors you woke up!"

Spyro groaned as he tried to move. "Where am I?"

"The ruins of the northern temple." Icera said. "My home as a child, The Dark Master may have killed the inhabitants, but their medical knowledge lived on in our hidden chambers." She said, patting a pile of scrolls beside her.

"But why can't I move?" Spyro asked.

Cynders face turned from one of joy to guilt. "We… didn't want you to hurt yourself when you woke up."

Spyro was confused. "Why would I do that?"

Selena looked ready to cry. "Dad, we tried everything we could, all my learning and magic, Iceras experience, but we- we couldn't…" She broke off.

Sei picked up in his gravelly voice. "Spyro, you're aware that the creature burned you, correct?"

Spyro nodded. "Am I scarred or something?"

Sei shook his head. "I wish it were that simple. To put it simply, we couldn't save your tail."

Spyro looked at them all with a face that showed shock. He looked back, and half his tail was bandaged, the last four feet and the spike were gone. He felt sick.

Cynder whispered "I'm so sorry."

Spyro looked into her eyes. "It's not your fault Cyn. It was that thing." Suddenly he had a flashback, he remembered as he saw his life pass before his eyes, then opened them to watch Valcor save them. "Where is he?" he asked.

"Here." Spyro turned to the door, Valcor walked out of the shadows, his piercing purple eyes filled with guilt. "I'm sorry, Spyro, maybe if I had gotten here sooner…"

"You- You saved us? You saved me? Why?"

Valcor put on a weak smile. "You may not like me, but believe it or not, I'm not my father. I grew up watching the pain he inflicted on people, the pain he put me through, trying to awaken elements I didn't have. I saw my mothers' madness for what it was. I was happy when you killed them. I could finally step out from their shadow, I reminded myself every day of what they did so I would never take that same path. And… and don't tell her this, but I love Zoulu, After you left, in her rage at you, she almost killed herself, I in turn almost gave my life to save hers. And since you're her father, I felt like I had to extend the same courtesy, whether it was welcome or not."

Spyro listened to all this and spent several more minutes in thought. He tried speaking, but his voice caught. He felt ashamed, this dragon, who had never hurt anyone, who had to LIVE with Malefor, came to him and he beat him and cast him out. He felt horrible, but couldn't bring himself to say it. Finally, he thought, "I couldn't live with myself if I didn't."

He looked at Valcor, and speaking before he could reconsider, said. "Valcor, I treated you like dirt, when I saw you; I wasn't looking at you, but your father. Yet you saved me and my family, I've blinded myself with emotion. Can-" He sighed and just said it. "Can you forgive me?"

Valcor smiled, "I'd love to." He looked at Spyros tail, "Besides, it looks like comeuppance struck, eh?"

Spyro smiled, that was in bad taste, but true all the same. "So can I move please? I'm not going to tear the rest of my tail off or anything."

Selena nodded, there was a flash and Spyro could stand, though shakily. He hadn't realized just how much he relied on his tail for balance. As he got up, he looked at Valcor. "Well, thanks for the whole saving my life thing, but you'd better treat Zoulu right. And don't try anything funny."

"Yeah!" Spyder said. "He gave me the same speech, and you've already seen him angry from what I've heard." Spyro rolled his eyes, but Valcor dipped his head.

"I promise not to do anything to betray your trust. I think we should be getting back now that you're up, I kind of left in a hurry and Zoulu's probably freaking out."

"Wait." Spyro said. "How long have I been out?"

"A little under a month." Selena said. "You should get some food too. You were unconscious that whole time, so we had to sustain you on mana transfusions alone, if you don't get some food, your body will have a whiplash effect soon."

Spyro didn't quite catch that, the whole "transfusion" thing threw him off, but whiplashing didn't sound fun, so the took off, going slow to make it easier for Spyro. When they had reached the outskirts of the ruins, they came across Kenji, who sat next to a bonfire, roasting a handful of deer. He looked up and seeing Spyro, jumped to his feet. "Spyro! I'm so glad you're-" He stopped as he saw Spyros tail.

Spyro smiled "Don't worry, I'm alive, right?" Just then, his stomach growled. Everyone laughed and sat down to eat. Spyro ate an entire deer himself, much to everyone's amazement. When they finished, Kenji burned the leftovers to ash and they started the long glide down. It gave Spyro experience learning how to fly without his tail. He had to rely on angling his wings more and as such would probably never be able to fly as well as he had ever again. After an hour, they had descended four miles; the air was thick and hard to breathe. After another hour, they had gotten used to the atmosphere again and made their way back home.

Warfang

It had been almost a month and we hadn't had any word from my family, Valcor, or anyone. Zoulu had slipped into a minor depression, while I still clung to the hope that everyone, Perrin especially, was safe. I couldn't reach my mind that far, but I was sure I would know if she died. I was in my room, reading about the world before Malefor was even born, when the door opened and Ember rushed in. "James! They're back!" she shouted. It took me a moment to realize what she meant, and I sprang up and ran to the roof. There was a crowd gathered, but Ember and Zoulu stood at the front. I went and joined them. I could see several dots on the horizon.

"So few…" I heard someone say. I then realized there was a bit more than half of the reinforcements coming back, and I couldn't tell if any of the original force had made it. I waited in nervous anticipation as they drew closer. As they got closer, I could make out two pink dragons. I breathed a sigh of relief; she had made it. One by one, my families' colors became visible. I also notice Valcors muddy purple among them. Spyro wasn't attacking, so I assumed they had made up.

Eventually, they came into the city limits and the crowd behind us erupted into cheers and welcomes. Another minute and they were landing among us. Perrin, Flame and Valcor headed toward us and embraced each of us. Perrin kissed me with a passion I hadn't known in a long time, when we finally broke, she said "I missed you so much!"

"Me too. I would have come after you, but the guardians had me busy." She just nodded and laid her head against me as I wrapped her in my wing. I looked over at the others, Flame and Ember were having a similar encounter, while Zoulu and Valcor were hugging, talking and constantly touching each other's faces. I saw Spyro looking over at the pair with a look of realization, then approval. It was then that I noticed his tail. I gasped.

Perrin followed my gaze. "Yeah, we tried everything we could, but couldn't help him. That's why we were so late." I walked over to Zoulu and gave her a nudge, pointing with my wing over to him. When Zoulu saw, her eyes started to well up. Valcor saw this and said, "Zoulu, don't even start thinking that, Even if you had gone, there was nothing you could have done. There was a destroyer." Me and Zoulu were shocked by that, and after everything had calmed down, We all went back to our living quarters.

Even though things had turned out fine, I guess, I couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't over.

Meanwhile, on a building top, There was a figure, in a black cloak, he watched the entire thing, paying especially close attention to Kenji. After everyone had left, he spread his arms, flaps on the sleeves opened and wings spread, he jumped into the air and took flight.


	21. Three as one

It had been two weeks since the destroyer. We had all been recuperating, none more so than Spyro. He had lost most of his tail. As it turned out, he used it for balance more than he had realized. He could walk fine, but could hardly fly and found fighting almost impossible. But we all helped as much as possible, Valcor seemed to want to help to prove he was really on our side, whereas Selena and Icera were spending a lot of time to themselves, saying it was not only for Spyro, but the common good.

Personally, I was glad when Volteer called me for another mission. When I arrived, the four guardians were there, Flame, Icera, Terrador, and Volteer. Cyril had taken to wandering the city where anyone could come to him with problems.

When I came in, Volteer looked troubled, he was pacing and muttering to himself.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Ah, young dragon, I'm glad you're here!" Volteer said, the fact that he wasn't using big words troubled me. "It would seem Amphertiti, my choice for guardian, has expired recently, something about a fire."

"I see. So what would you have me do?"

Volteer shook his head. "I spent ten years searching, and now the perfect candidate is gone!" He looked over at me, a hint of a smile on his face. "However, this doesn't mean I'm unprepared. There's a dragoness I met a long time ago, her name is Ondonna. However, all those years ago, in my youth, I only met her once, then it was like she never existed… If you could find her, she might be able to take my place."

"Volteer, if she's as old as you, wouldn't that defeat the purpose?" Icera asked.

"Naïve dragon, not everything is what it appears." He replied before turning back to me. "James, I know it will be difficult, but she's the only one I can trust."

So now here I am, chasing ghost's. I asked all over the city, looked in the library, birth records, all turned up nothing. It was really starting to get to me, I was considering telling Volteer it was impossible, but some part of me wanted to keep trying.

After a few days of fruitless searching, I had decided to vent, I went to a training room and set up dummies to attack. AS the battle started, I didn't even really pay attention, I just kind of went through the moves and watched them fall before me. After a few minutes of endless dummies, they froze. I turned to the control panel and saw Valcor there. "Mind if I jump in?"

I shrugged. "Be my guest." He punched a button and the dummies returned to standby, I watched them retreat and turned to him, He was crouched, in a ready stance. Then I realized what he meant. "Awww…sh-" Just then he leapt at me, I had to use my teleportation just to get out of the way, then I countered with a slash of the tail, which was blocked by his own jagged blade. We both grinned and parried, we flew apart and immediately leapt at each other, He brought his wing spikes out to stab at me, I swept my wing blades up and knocked them to the side, but his speed trumped as we collided in midair, he landed on top of me, his wing spike aimed at my throat.

"Nice try." He said.

"Don't count me out yet!" I yelled as I ducked my head and rammed his spikes with my horns, I twisted my head; catching them both as I rolled. Midway, he kicked us apart. We stood about tem body lengths apart. Valcor was grinning from ear to ear. "Zoulu wasn't lying about you."

"What'd she say?" I asked.

"That you were one of the strongest dragons she's ever met and that you push her to new heights."

That definitely surprised me. "Wow, to be honest I could say the same about her."

Valcor nodded. "Yeah, she says she's training and one day she'll try and beat you, I came to see if you all that." Then he leapt at me, spinning as he whipped out his tail blade. I jumped and flipped in midair, slashing down with my own blade and knocking his to the ground, then I flared my wings and halted my spin, bringing my tail into an uppercut, which ha parried with crossed wing spikes.

Barely a foot from each other, he said, "Although, I can tell something's been bothering you lately, what's up?"

I shoved us apart and said, "Nothing, Volteer wants me to find someone that doesn't exist, says her name is Ondonna."

Valcor froze, shock on his face. "Who?"

I puzzled over his reaction. "Wait, do you know her?"

"I- uh, why does Volteer want to see her?"

"He said that he met her a long time ago and wants her to take his place."

He stood there for a moment, eyes closed, then suddenly he leapt at me unnaturally fast, I was able to raise a guard, but that's all I was able to do as he threw blow after blow, after so many blows, he hooked his claws around my blade and knocked it away, bringing his own to bear. I froze, clearly beaten, however, he was gasping for breath, we both were.

He backed away. "I can introduce you. Meet us in half an hour, the fountain." Then he turned and left. I fell onto my haunches. He was fast, and it was as if he knew exactly how I'd move.

At any rate, a half hour went by fast and soon me and Volteer were at the fountain. I looked around us at the scene; I had never been to this part of the city before. The fountain had two spouts shaped like equine dragon heads. One pointed up while the other was down, they emptied into a rectangular pool that was a haven for bird life. Here and there, children played in the square while parents kept a watchful eye from the park-like balconies above.

From around the corner came Zoulu, I called her over. When she got there, she asked "Hey, you guys here to meet Valcor too?"

Volteer nodded. "Affirmative. He has set a rendezvous with he and I to procreate an individual I've been yearning to affiliate with for quite an extensive period of time now, why just last week I-"

I cleared my throat, stopping Volteer. "We get it."

Volteer hung his head, "Why does everyone insist on terminating my converses before I have attained the purpose of them?"

Just then, Valcor glided down. He landed and I asked "So? Where is she?"

"She'll be here as soon as I explain something. This dragon you want to meet, she's not really dragon, she's more of a spirit that chooses to take dragon form."

"Inconceivable!" Volteer exclaimed "How is it that you came by this knowledge?"

I felt an energy surging from him; he began glowing and everyone near stopped what he or she was doing to gawk. When the glow faded, his scales had changed to a vibrant pink, he seemed to have a faint pink flame covering his body, but it did nothing to him. When he spoke, I was surprised that he had a female voice.

"He knows because we told him."

After an awkward pause, Zoulu spoke first. "Umm, Valcor?"

He/she shook his/her head, "I'm not Valcor, My name is Ondonna, I'm a celestial being that chooses to inhabit Valcors soul and provide guidance and help. Valcor has graciously allowed me to reveal myself in this roundabout manner. He still sees and hears everything you say, but until he decides otherwise, I can use his body." Ondonna turned to Volteer and looked him up and down with a look of desire, "Well now, it certainly has been a while."

Volteer blushed. "I-I, uh you don't seem to have aged a day Ondonna."

She smiled. "That's because I don't age. You on the other hand, seem to have gotten better with age."

Zoulu stepped between them "I don't know who you are, but I don't like someone talking to someone else like that in Valcors body."

Ondonna nodded. "The girlfriend. I understand."

Zoulu blushed "I-I don't know what your talking about."

Ondonna laughed, "Oh relax! This body is still male, so I couldn't try anything if I wanted! Besides, what makes Valcor happy makes us happy."

"That's the second time you spoke in plural." I said. "Is there more than one of you?"

"Yes, while I embody everything positive about Valcor, Yin you could say, so is there a Yang spirit within Valcor, the incarnation of his negative half. However, He will reveal himself when he is ready. But at any rate, I know why you asked to meet me Volteer, I'm afraid I cannot help you."

"What?" Volteer said, "Why not?"

The flames around her body grew more intense. "Because you see, this time I chose the fire element."

"Wait," I said, "You chose?"

"That's right; I've been to this world many times before, under many guises. After Valcor has aged into oblivion, I will come many times more. However," She said, her voice beginning to echo. "I believe Valcor could help you if you ask nicely."

With that there was another flare and when it faded, Valcor had taken Ondonnas place. He looked slightly disoriented and wobbled. "Man, I never get used to that."

Zoulu walked over to him. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

Valcor chuckled, "I needed to wait until you trusted me, When we first met, if I had told you I had voices in my head, what would you have thought?"

Zoulu smiled. "I guess you're right." Then she slapped him in the face with her tail. "Just don't hide anything from me again!"

I thought to myself. "Ondonna's right on the mark about them. I hope they tell each other their feelings soon."

Volteer interrupted the "moment", saying "So Valcor? What is your disposition towards Ondonnas proposition?"

"Umm… I'm, uhh superfluous to the idea?"

Volteer stared at him as if he was an alien. "You're mighty strange."

I laughed. "Valcor, He asked you if you would become guardian, and you told him you're not needed for you to be guardian."

Valcor got red in the face. "I didn't know! Why didn't you just use normal words?" He yelled at Volteer, who broke down again.

"Really? This is just how I converse to a standard degree and everyone is begrudged to me on account of it!"

I smiled. Volteer will be Volteer.

After things had calmed, Valcor said, "But anyways, I'd be honored Volteer."

We had gone back to the temple to announce the situation to everyone else. After the situation had been explained many times, Valcors test began. The first half I would be of no use; it was basically a quiz on virtually every subject imaginable, I myself only knew a few questions.

With almost every question, Valcor seemed to have trouble, and then it was as if he suddenly knew. He got every question right. I tried delving into his mind a few times and only met his mental wall. At one point, I thought I felt a huge mind that could only be Ondonna, but it was like a mirage. I guessed that Ondonna was supplying him with answers, which was technically ok as her memories were as much his.

After he aced the test, it was my turn. I wasn't looking forward to the duel, I could tell he would be even harder than Icera. In our match earlier that day, we had been even until he tapped into some vast power and trounced me without even using his element. I knew I would have to use everything in my arsenal just to stay in the game.

As we took our places I could tell I wouldn't have enough time to charge a fury, so I used the time before the fight actually started to separate my energy. AS Volteer yelled Start, I slammed light and shadow energy back together and opened my mouth as a double helix of white and black flew out, ripping through the wall behind Valcor, who simply wasn't there anymore.

Remembering how fast he was, I started to jump, but before I could even bend my knees he appeared behind me, ramming me to the floor, I lost focus on the chaos and it jumbled, causing an explosion in my mouth, had I not phased into shadow, my jaw would have been torn off.

Valcor spoke, and I could hear his and Ondonnas voice at the same time. "Chaos… You'll do well to be more careful. The shadows can't save you forever." Then he vanished again, I teleported above the battlefield, but as soon as I reappeared, he was there! a wave of electricity came off him and sent me to the ground. He landed a ways off, thinking I was paralyzed.

I grinned and opened my mouth and shot a beam of light, which he dodged by appearing five feet to the right. This was the fastest I had ever seen anyone move, but I had a way around speed. I leapt to my feet and just as he vanished, I used dragon time.

Everything froze and even though I had stopped time, he was still moving! It was like the bullets in the matrix, but still! The only thing I could think of was that he could surpass the speed of light. True enough I could see a disturbance around him, as if some energy was shielding him from reversing time on himself. I walked up to him, shock very slowly showing on his face, and then I charged my claws with light and hit him. I resumed normal time and watched a crater appear in the wall, Valcor in the middle.

Everyone was speechless, from their point of view, we both vanished and reappeared in the same instant, Valcor flying into the wall so fast it looked like he was never there. AS he slid to the ground, he got up dazed. "How- how did?"

I grinned, "I've got a few tricks up my sleeve." I released dragon time again, but nothing happened.

"Crap! What's happening?"

Ondonna spoke thorough Valcor again. "Honestly, you command such power without knowing its limits? Dragon times power use is vast, very likely you only had one in you."

"But, back at the prison, I did it many times…"

"And I could feel it; The Chronicler was lending you strength." Then, He leapt at me again, but in that time, I had successfully charged my light fury. I flared my wings as thousands of bolts of light flew from my chest, each one having the strength of a bomb. I had personally seen this move obliterate a five story regenerating robot, so after the deadly rain stopped, I was surprised to see he was still standing. Unmarked!

He was standing in a cloak of pink fire, burning brightly, which buckled and exploded outward, I threw up a shadow wall and felt it hiss though the air on either side. I dropped the wall and saw Valcor standing, apparently charging his own fury. I flew to the other side of the room and watched as he released and…nothing.

"What was that?" I yelled.

"Wait for it." He replied.

I was puzzling over it when suddenly I couldn't stay airborne anymore. I was sucked to the ground, which exploded on contact, a million lightning bolts flying from my body and arcing to every surface in the arena. And I felt each of those bolts.

When it finally faded, I was writhing on the floor as Valcor came up. "I electrified the floor creating a strong electromagnetic field in the process. Did you know the body contains trace amounts of iron? Normally it doesn't affect us, but with a field that strong, I'm surprised the ceiling didn't cave on you."

"I chuckled, saying "You have to learn to stop doing that… wasting time." I told him as released the shadow fury I'd been storing since I got hit with his. I knew two furies in a row would be pushing it, but it was my only chance. Everything went black as all the light in the area was sucked into me, giving me strength along with all the sound. Valcor was now effectively blind and deaf.

While the fury lasted, I pushed myself to my feet and limped a few paces away, charging a light blast, putting everything I had into it. of course it was invisible in the void. I used my mental powers to find his mind, and was surprised at yet another change, he seemed… impossible. Hard to explain in words. But suddenly I felt a blast that both burned and froze at once and the fury along with my attack faded.

I found myself on the ground, Valcor pinning me. In a last ditch attempt, I released a mass of light, creating a blinding flare. AS he screamed in agony, I pushed him off me and scrambled away. I charged my final attack once more as he stumbled straight at me. "I-I don't need my eyes!" He said, again speaking with two voices, but the second one sounded male this time, he had some kind of dark aura around him. "I'll tear you're ****ing head off!"

I released my light blast, the wave of energy so intense that it felt like I'd be torn apart just from being this close, it hit him… and reflected! It hit the aura, jumped over him, and took out the wall behind him.

That was all I had in me, I went down to the ground, exhausted and waited for the head ripping, but the aura had seemed to disappear and he had calmed down. "Was that the other spirit just now?" I thought. "To think he had enough power to reflect that attack."

Valcor walked over and helped me to my feet. "That was tough James. If it hadn't been for that… intervention earlier, I think I'd be worse for wear."

I nodded. "But why'd you stop?"

"I'm guessing you've made your own assumptions as t what that was? Well that spirit… he helps me, don't get me wrong. And he's actually pretty decent, but I think that last attack would have actually hurt me bad. He… came out on his own to save me. Had I let him finish the battle though, lets just say when he smells blood in the water, he won't stop unless I make him."

I nodded. I got on my own feet and left Valcor to the guardians as I made my way to my room. Perrin wasn't there, most likely at med school, so I curled up and went to sleep.


	22. extended cut

[Wake up… James, wake up…]

As I heard the voice from the phantasmagoria of my dreams, they slowly coalesced into logical surroundings; I was in the temple of time, or outside to be specific. I looked around me and the first thing I noticed alarmed me, on the horizon, instead of the chaotic darkness that enveloped the place, there was only white. It stretched unbroken to the horizon and even encroached on the land. It was as if this place were a drawing and someone was erasing it.

The next thing I noticed was I wasn't alone, with me were Spyro, Cynder, Spyder, Valcor and Terrador.

"Wha-" Terrador started, but was interrupted by the voice. [Welcome friends, I'm glad you made the journey safely.] Ignitus said.

"Dad?" Spyro shouted, "Where are you?" As he spoke, a door in the Cliffside opened and Ignitus, the Chronicler walked out. "I apologize for not inviting you inside, but alas, things have gone beyond my control."

"What do you mean Ignitus?" Terrador asked.

"Old friend, you can see the void slowly erasing this place, the same is happening inside, books recording dragons' lives are disappearing and reappearing at random, I've never seen this before. It is the work of Ōumĭ jiā.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Ōumĭ jiā wants to bring about the end of existence, but have you stopped to consider why, or what would become of him?" I shook my head. Ignitus sighed. "The dragon is demented, not even I know why he does this, but I can answer the second question, he lives in a place unreachable, the opposite of existence. I suppose a proper term would be "Anti-Space". That is what you see before you now. He is expanding his boundaries and negating this place in the process. Soon this place will be gone, me along with it."

"Dad! No!" Spyro said. "There has to be a way to stop it!"

Ignitus chuckled, "Look for yourself." Sure enough, the whiteness was moving, erasing the ground at a rate of half a meter per minute. A small, crab-like creature blindly walked into the void and simply winked out of existence. We looked back at Ignitus. "I am resigned to my fate; the time of the Chronicler has come to an end."

Spyro stared at the ground, "No no no no no… You can't die!"

"Spyro!" Ignitus said sternly, forcing him to look up. Ignitus smiled, "I'm already dead, remember? I am content with this, so there is no purpose in beating yourself up over it, I may be gone, but you'll always have those close to you."

Spyro nodded, tears forming. Valcor groaned, "Jeez! He's not dead yet!" Cynder shot him an icy glare; he just shrugged.

"Will I- will I ever see you again?" Spyro asked.

"Even the Chronicler does not know everything, will my spirit simply cease, or will it join with the ancestors? Only they know, and they're not sharing the secret. All I can say is when the time comes for you to find out, you will. Until then I have some information no Chronicler has shared before, but as I will soon be no more, the knowledge must survive if you are to defeat your enemy."

We walked a little father away from the antispace to talk. When we had all lain down, Ignitus started again. "First; Spyro, I'm sorry to hear about your tail, I cannot tell you everything you would wish to know, but I can say that will not be a permanent disability."

Spyro got exited, but Ignitus silenced him. "Before you ask, know that is all I know, I have no other answers on the subject. However, I do know how you can reach Ōumĭ jiā."

"Ok, I'll bite." Valcor said. "How do we get to the unreachable opposite of existence?"

"The same way you came to the dragon realms."

"How? Be born?" Valcor said sarcastically.

Ignitus chuckled, "You know, I did enjoy reading your book, you have an interesting sense of humor. But no, you were not born in the dragon realms, or even to Malefor. He told you that to gain dominion over you before you could make your own choice." Suddenly, two forms materialized on either side of Valcor, the first appeared as a huge, serpentine dragon with pink scales and blazing in flames. The other appeared as a black dragon whose color changed to blood red as the light hit it just right. He gave off a dark aura.

Valcor looked surprised. "Ondonna! Tempes! What are you doing here?"

The black dragon, Tempes smiled cruelly. "The power of this place allows us to take on a form of our own."

"Though it is not a true body." Ondonna said. Tempes grunted. "But at any rate, what the Chronicler said is true, we had to hide it from you until now, as before you met your friends, if we had told you the truth, you would have likely lost the will to live."

"And what is the truth?" Valcor asked.

"You're dead!" Tempes said.

"Tempes!" Ondonna yelled, Tempes shrugged "It's the truth."

Ondonna curled the end of her massive tail around Valcor, who stared into space, his eyes unfocused. "There there, that's not true, while you first life ended, you are very much alive now." She twisted so she was in front of Valcor, forcing him to make eye contact. He seemed to calm down as he met her gaze. Tempes huffed, "Wuss."

Eventually, Valcor had collected himself. "So, do you know who I was before?"

Ignitus sighed and looked at the ring of white that was slowly but surely encroaching, "I know, but there is no time for me to explain." He looked at me, "James also knows, he just hasn't put the pieces together, with his abilities, if you two could figure it out, he could explain much better than I could if we had a century to talk."

I looked at Valcor, confused. He stared back, then Ignitus spoke again, "And now we get to the core of this subject, The way your spirit, all the spirits from other worlds came to this world was via portal."

"Wait, a portal?" Terrador asked. "I helped create each one personally, there is no such portal."

"Ah, that's true." Ignitus said, "But where do you think the technology came from? There exists references in my collection about a doorway to heaven, it seems there was a door that divided nothing, it was simply there, but it had eight controllers, and when activated, the door would fill with light and lead anywhere, and anyWHEN. However, the controllers would be activated in different sequences to go different places. However, this "address" had a fault, if activated simultaneously; this doorway to heaven would try to go everywhere at once, and in a paradox, lead to everything and nothing. I believe this references anti-space."

With that, he revealed a book and opened it, inside were runes I had seen everyday of my life, English.

"It took a while to translate, but I believe I have it solved." Ignitus said. "The main body talks about how in the past, a draconic being descended to the world it then used this doorway to summon an army to destroy the humans, but with their technology, they held him off and after many years of war. The survivors of humanity tricked the dragon and sent it back where it came from. They located the eight controllers, referred to here as "Chevrons" and used their technology to seal them. The last line of text was harder to decipher as it's written so differently." I looked at the line, it was handwritten cursive.

"It reads: Into infinity god went, trapped forever by our hands, along with his doorway to heaven." Ignitus read, I chuckled to myself, everyone looked at me and I took the book.

"No Ignitus, I've never seen humans write this poetically in a report, but it says: "A million years into the sky is The End. Sealed and buried for all time, his Portal."

"So," Cynder said. "We go back, break the seals of these "chevrons" and activate them at the same time?"

"Correct." Ignitus replied, "However, it will be much harder than that, the chevrons are scattered throughout the world, so timing the activation will be tricky. Plus each one responds to a certain element, so you'll need eight dragons of each of the main light and dark elements, plus a dragon capable of using convexity to actually open the portal itself. And there are two more things, first, is that the seal on each chevron will take the form of the darkness within yourselves. And secondly, once you go though the portal, the energies within will change you."

"Change us how?" Spyro asked.

"Well, for the humans, or "were-dragons" as they call themselves, their souls were given dragon bodies to live in. For James, he was returned to the body he would have had if he had stayed in his own world. Oh! I almost forgot! Speaking of changes, another dragon has came through the portal, I'm not sure how, but he arrived from the past, his element and appearance has changed, and I know he is destined to be the next earth guardian. When you go back, you are to find him and test him."

"And why exactly don't we put this off and just go kick Ōumĭ jiā's butt right now?" Tempes asked.

"Well now," Ignitus said, "You're not a dragon per say, nor are you mortal. If you want to go, I have no say in what you do, just know that Valcor just might decide to stay and carry on his duties as guardian."

Tempes looked at Valcor, who nodded; Tempes groaned and put his head in his paws. "I give up!"

"So, how do plan on returning us to their world?" Ondonna asked.

Ignitus chuckled, "Easy, wake up."

I sat up with a start, looking around. I was back in my room with Perrin. She lay next to me, sleeping peacefully. I gently kissed her on the forehead and got up. I left without waking her and flew to the wall of Warfang, I found everyone else there, Spyro, Cynder, Valcor and Spyder. I landed next to them and we looked out together at the volcano that had once housed Malefors lair, Nature was slowly retaking it, it was starting to house grasses again.

After a while, others had begun showing up as the sky lightened. First was Fever, who noticed Spyder was gone. After him, Perrin showed up. She walked over and lay close to me for warmth, I hugged her back, Ignitus's fate made it clear for the first time that the whole world ending wasn't just something in the future, it was almost here…

After them, the rest of Spyros family arrived one by one, along with Jacy, Kenji and Ryan. At this point, I didn't much care how everyone knew where we were, all I knew was we had to make a plan, and I said so. We explained what had happened after everyone had gotten over the shock and understood what was going on, Kenji put up his hand. "I volunteer."

"For what?" Spyro asked.

"Those chevrons, one has to opened with wind? Well, I only know three dragons who can use wind, Cynders the only one of use with poison, so she can't and Spyro's the only other one with convexity to open the portal, so that leaves me." Everyone nodded, it made sense.

After much talking, Flame agreed to handle fire, Icera was to do ice, Spyder was to go to shadow, Sei would take fear, and Valcor would unlock electricity. That left earth. We thought about the mysterious person Ignitus told us to find, perhaps he'd be able.

With that settled, we went to Terrador, we found him outside the temple. As we approached, he nodded and welcomed our group over. "So, the next generation is to leave to make their impression on the world. What do you need?"

"Terrador." Spyro began, "We need to know about the chevrons."

Terrador nodded. "I stayed with Ignitus after the rest of you had left, he told me many things, that included." He pulled out a map. If you draw lines connecting the four temples, then using the intersecting point as your starting point, you would fly in each direction of the compass, North, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, etc. Simple."

I nodded, "But what about the earth dragon?"

Terrador sighed, looking distressed. "You'll find him at the western temple." He looked at me. "You must go now, there is no time to waste, Ignitus has told me when Ōumĭ jiā will strike. We have until sundown a week from now."

So that's how it came to be that I was in the portal room. It was a huge room with massive vaulted ceilings, and covering every inch of the walls were portals, all the way to the apex of the ceiling. Terrador had showed me which one to take and I flew through.

It had the feeling of being squeezed and inflated at the same time, I couldn't tell up from down or even if I was moving, the only thing I could see were lights streaking past me, eventually I came through the other side and stood at a lake shore. I looked around confused, where's the temple? Then I looked up.

Above me was a massive structure. The bottom was a massive dome, with a tower reaching several hundred feet into the air, but maybe ten feet across supporting what looked like the arch upside down, but much bigger, altogether the temple was well over 1000 feet in height, and the whole thing floated a mile above the lake. I mouthed "wow" and took off.

After I had reached the dome, I could tell the only way in was through the city of windows in the arch above, so I corkscrewed around the spire until I reached the arch and entered what looked like an entrance based on the decoration outside.

Once in, I noticed every dragon here was the same color, they were all albinos. One noticed me and walked over, "Be welcome silver one from the southern temple, we have foreseen your arrival."

I was surprised to say the least, "You have?"

He… or she nodded. "Yes, here, we have willingly surrendered our elements; they breed only war and pain. In exchange, our spiritual practices give us certain abilities unknown to other dragons. This is how we knew of your coming, and of the pilgrim."

"The pilgrim?"

"Yes, the one who voyaged through time, whether intentional or not."

I nodded, they must be talking about the earth dragon. "May I see him?"

The albino nodded and led me through the maze of corridors and staircases to a room. He/she opened it and I walked in to find… "Valcor? What are you doing here?"

Valcor shrugged, "Ignitus told me to come after you left, so I did. He said the spiritual energy of this place could help me remember. And I have! It turns out I was from your world before, but then I was known as Stephen."

I grinned, "Congrats, you know your identity now, does that change anything?"

He shook his head, "That may have been me before, but I'm Valcor now." He turned to look out the window, "Oh! and I found your earth dragon, come on, I'll show you."

So we jumped out the window, and instead of opening his wings, he shot down like a hawk, I followed. We got closer and closer to the ground and I had the bad feeling that he was playing chicken. Turn out I was right, he veiled himself in electricity and comet dashed into the lake. With no time to think I used shadow strike, turning into a cloud of shadow and phasing through the water without a ripple.

In this form I had no eyes, so I relied on my mental abilities to sense where Valcor was. I remembered my fight with Icera and returned to normal to save my mana. I then swam after Valcor, "flying" underwater, the water put up huge resistance and it was much harder to flap, so I just kind of waved them and lazily floated along like a manta.

Valcor swam into a cave and I considered going back up for air, but I sensed his relief as his body received fresh air. I followed and sure enough, I surfaced in a grotto, light from the lake casting light ripples across the walls and ceiling and casting everything in a blue hue. Near a pile of fish bones sat Valcor and the dragon , talking.

I walked over and Valcor introduced us. "James, this is Kwaik, Kwaik, this is James."

"Nice to meet you." The dragon said in a bass, yet smooth voice. I looked him over, He looked like a typical earth dragon, green scales with brown everything else. His belly and horns were textured like wood while his wing and elbow spikes were textured like stone. His tail ended in twin spiked hammers, like those armored dinosaurs with the hammer tails.

"Valcor has been telling me much about the current situation in this time. As much as I would like to return to my family, my mate, Rictrea and my son, Terry, I feel like I need to help here, Valcor said you would come to test me to see if I'm guardian material?"

I thought for a minute, then, "No, actually, Kwaik, I have the same ability as the banished purple dragon, I can manipulate time. If you want, I can send you back right now." Valcor stared at me like I was the biggest fool He'd ever seen.

Kwaik shook his head, "No, this, Ōumĭ Jiā, if he wins, he'll destroy not only your time, but mine as well. I want to help."

"Think rationally." I said, "What about your family, what if you don't come back?" Then I focused my power and the wall seemed to fall into a vortex until there was a shining white disk in the wall. "There, the portals open, your four steps from your family."

Kwaik looked at the portal with intense longing and took a step forward, then turned his back to it. "No! I've made my decision and you can't change my mind!"

"Good." I said, terminating the portal, it vanished and the wall returned to normal. "The test was to judge will and integrity. You passed."

Later, on the lakeshore

Me and Kwaik stood opposite to each other. Suddenly he covered himself in a jagged boulder and rocketed toward me, I shot a blast of light, but it glanced off the side and I barely had time to jump to the side as he shot past. The boulder disintegrated and he whipped around, an energy flail shooting from his mouth and tail. He spun round and round, making it impossible to get close. Then the energy ceased and he faced me, shooting a stream of earth bullets from his mouth. I performed the shadow strike and flew through the bullets as black smoke and reappeared in a spiraling slash that hit him, throwing him to the ground. Bad mistake.

As he fell to the ground, he continued, going underground. "Why does this remind me of a show about kids catching monsters?" I said and flew up to evade the imminent attack. It never came though. Suddenly a pillar of earth shot from the ground toward me, I dodged only to see another coming at me. After a few of these they stopped. Only to be followed by the pillars exploding, raining razor sharp shards at me, I folded my wings and dove to the ground, just before colliding I twisted around and shot a wide light beam that blew the deadly rain away.

Just as I thought it was over, I felt something cold slither up my tail. I turned around to see the rock had jutted up and had engulfed my tail, before I could cry out, I was yanked down and was up to my chin in solid rock. I was about to shadow phase out of it when I was sucked the rest of the way down, I had no escape and would soon run out of air! I started panicking and soon realized that was only using up air faster, so I forced myself to calm down.

Then there was a voice that echoed through the rock. "Give up yet?"

I would have smiled could I move [Not on your life] I thought to Kwaik as I fused the light and shadow within me, summoning the chaos, There was an explosion and I was hovering in a crater ten yards deep. As I hovered there, a ball of earth energy shot from the rock, my reflexes were unnatural and I evaded with ease. Another shot out at a different location and again I dodged, this continued a few more times. [Have anything new?] I shouted.

Kwaik emerged from the ground at last. "Just this!" he yelled back, I turned around to see the twenty or so energy balls had formed a ring above me, and they all converged on me in a way that made it impossible to dodge, the blasts inflicted minimal damage, but as I turned back to Kwaik, I was surprised to see them come around for another pass. I tried to negate them with my own blasts of light, but when they hit, the earth blasts only got bigger. "Aww..." I started to say as the barrage hit me again, the damage doubled due to my own attack.

I tried to fly away, using the chaos energy to speed up, but they followed me with the agility of a dragonfly, then at the wrong moment, the chaos I had stored up ran out and I resumed normal speed, just as the energy blasts hit me again, this was really starting to become annoying. Then they came around and fused into a massive ball of green light. I smiled. Just as it hit, I summoned my shadow element as a wall, it acted similar to voidstone, absorbing the attack and turning it into energy for me, refreshed, I turned to Kwaik and dive bombed him, summoning my light energy in a comet dash.

He tried to defend by making armor out of the earth, but the comet dash plowed straight through. When the smoke cleared, I was pinning him, my wing blades X'd around his throat. We were both gasping for breath and smiling.

"A draw then." Kwaik said.

"Huh?" Kwaik nodded for me to look up. I did and saw a massive stalactite hovering above my head, ready to impale my face.

"If you were to strike now, I'd lose my focus, causing that to fall" He said. I suddenly got the heebie-jeebies real bad and scrambled away, completely freaked by how close I had just come to death. Kwaik chuckled and got up, the stalactite falling behind him and burying itself ten feet into the rock with a crunching sound.

Kwaik walked over. "So?"

I couldn't really say anything, I was just staring at the giant rock and moving my mouth up and down. Valcor walked over laughing, "I think you pass man!"

Later as we were flying back to the temple, I was still shaken, so Valcor did most of the question answering. The questions so far had been mostly routine, then he asked a seemingly insignificant one. "So, who's the current earth guardian?"

"A dragon named Terrador." Valcor answered. I almost ran into Kwaik as he'd stopped in midair.

"Woah! What the heck man?" I yelled as I rolled around him in time, I twisted in midair to face him, his face was unreadable. Valcor had turned around to join us, "Is he ok?" I shrugged.

"Terrador… you sure?" Kwaik asked.

"I've been living with him for close to a year now, I'm pretty sure." I answered.

"Why, what's the problem?" Valcor said.

"I… how old is he now?"

I frowned, "Umm… I dunno, over 500 I'm sure."

Kwaiks face grew haggard. "My God, has it been that long?" He looked up at out confused looks. His own grew red. "Sorry, I didn't mean to trouble you, but… You clain this is my future, well my sons name is Terrador, and if you're right, then to him I left home over five centuries ago and never came back."


	23. Chevrons 1, 2

Chevron battle #1 (Wind)

Kenji flew hard and fast to his assigned Chevron, the whole time, he wondered what its defense would have in store for him. He passed over many villages along the way; the ones that hadn't been destroyed by Ōumĭ jiā were in bad shape. He wanted to help, but knew the best way to do that would be to activate the chevron.

Then he saw it, a massive obelisk, easily 400 ft. He glided down and upon landing; he looked up and marveled at it. It was covered in odd markings that lent it the feel of ancient civilization. Before it was a pedestal with a screen on it. "This must be what the humans built before they vanished." Kenji said.

"And you'd be absolutely right" Came a voice from behind him. Kenji whipped around, reaching for his wind element, when he saw a man in a black cloak.

"Wait, you're… human?" Kenji asked.

"Silly boy, being bipedal doesn't automatically make you human." He said. Then he raised his arms and wings unfurled from the wrists, they were a light green.

"Wh-What the?" Kenji said, summoning his keyblade, Keyberdu, and raised it to ready. The dragon opened his hands and two keyblades appeared. "Blade Synch…" Kenji muttered, then his eyes widened. "Those blades-" he stammered.

"Heh, Oblivion and Oathkeeper, creation and destruction, yin and yang, light and shadow. It is by the law of the world that you will die and complete me."

"Wait, complete you? What do you mean?" Kenji asked. The dragon pulled back his hood and Kenji gasped.

He looked jus like Kenji, except his scales were blue where Kenjis' was green. "My name is Ixnek. I'm a Nobody. Your Nobody."

"No way… a… Nobody? You mean like, my other half? I didn't even know I had a half missing!"

Ixnek smirked. "They never do." He said as he raised his blades and charged Kenji.

Kenji yelled "Slow!" As the magic activated, everything indeed slowed around him. But just then, Ixnek said "Haste." And everything resumed normal speed. Kenji frowned. He pointed his keyblade at the dragon and yelled "Blizzara!" Once again, Ixnek countered with a Fira spell.

"Are you even going to try?" Ixnek taunted. Kenji growled and raised his hand, wind began swirling around, forming a visible sphere, then he ran at Ixnek. Ixnek rolled his eyes and shot a Thundara spell. However, as the lightning arced toward Kenji, he threw Keyberdu, it stuck in the ground and attracted the spell like a lightning rod. Ixneks eyes widened as Kenji leapt over and came down on him, yelling "RASENGAN!"

There was a flash of light that carved destruction in the earth, however, as the dust settled, Kenji stared in disbelief at Ixnek, who had survived the blast.

Ixnek smiled "Not bad, but let me show you how it's done!" Oblivion vanished and wind energy came from Oathkeeper and gathered in his hand. It quickly formed a rasengan, but it didn't stop there. Ixnek smiled. "Wind release: Rasenshurikan!"

The sphere formed into a star of light, which Ixnek flung at Kenji. It traveled at blinding speeds, but Kenji was ready. By that time, he had retrieved his keyblade, which he channeled his combined wind and fire elements into. Keyberdu began to change, within moments its full guard had morphed into two partial hearts, the blades, as there were now two parallel to each other, were a metallic blue. The teeth of the keyblade resembled a shining star. The kanji for fire was inscribed on the front blade.

Kenji raised the blade to guard; the rasenshurikan hit the blade and passed through the front blade, but was then caught between the two. Kenji swung it, and the attack flew out of the blades and exploded to the side, as the wind whipped their clothes and the light illuminated the area in a bright glare, Ixnek could see Kenji was no longer smiling. He had the look of a predator.

"How?" Kenji asked in a flat voice.

"Simple." Ixnek answered. "I'm you, but stronger in every way. Now behold!" He struck out with his hand and a jet of fire shot out. Kenji swung his blade, and the blast ricocheted off, exploding to the other side. Kenji pointed his blade at Ixnek, wind swirling around the blade. Ixnek fired blast after blast of fire, all of which snuffed out just before going past the blade.

He growled, "Fine, Thundaja!" a massive blast of lightning came from the sky, but it spread in a dome around Kenji, scorching the ground in a circle around him, but leaving him unharmed. "How?" Ixnek cried.

"It's simple." Kenji said in a monotone. "You may be stronger, but if we're two halves of a whole, then positive negates negative. It is impossible for us to harm each other with our powers."

"Fine." Ixnek sneered, "It looks like it's blade to blade then." He summoned Oblivion and ran at Kenji. Even with two blades, Kenji was faster, and always blocked one blade and dodged the other by a hair.

Kenji jumped back, landing several dozen yards away. "Simply put, you're me, but I'm the original. You have my fighting style, and that means I know exactly what you're going to do next. You can't beat me, give up."

"We'll see, Maybe I can't beat you with MY powers, but try this on for size!" He raised Oblivion an a beam of purple energy shot out, obliterating the ground in its path. Kenji barely dodged, only to have another blast come at him, he blocked it, but the energy caused his blade to revert to normal.

"What the heck?" Kenji yelled.

Ixnek grinned, he held up Oblivion, admiring it. "Convexity, a powerful element, no? This place," he said, sweeping his arm to indicate where they were. "This place gives me impossible abilities, to protect it see? Now, time for you to die." Ixnek then thrust Oblivion out, a sheath of convexity surrounded the blade. He rushed at Kenji, who could barely keep up, Ixnek no longer fought like him, but a madman, a berserker. Kenji could no longer predict his movements, but he knew his recklessness would leave an opening.

Sure enough, a few strokes in, Kenji reached in with his bare left hand and grabbed Ixneks left wrist, jerking it and causing Oathkeeper to fly into the air. Kenji jumped up and in midair, received a vicious blow to the right wing, almost severing it. He still managed to grab the white keyblade and brought it down on Oblivion, on contact, the convexity dispersed and Kenji delivered a roundhouse kick that sent Ixnek sprawling.

Kenji then pointed Oathkeeper at Ixnek. "If the dark blade has convexity, then the light should have concavity."

A white beam shot out and struck Ixnek. He made no sound, just faded. "Concavity purges all evil from a person, however, dark illusions are cast aside like dust in the wind. And you never fooled me, my heart was never incomplete, if it was, you wouldn't have ceased to exist, but fused with me upon your defeat." Kenji tossed Oathkeeper away, which also faded as soon as it left his hand.

Kenji gingerly felt his wing, with a quick heal spell, it was no longer in danger of falling off, but he'd have to walk back.

He stopped before the pedestal; it had the outline of a hand on the screen. When he pressed his hand to it, he channeled his wind energy into it, immediately; the arcane markings on the obelisk began lighting up white. When the glow had reached the tip, Kenji stepped back as the massive structure split in two, forming a giant V shape. The halves of the tip folded inward to point at each other, then white lightning formed between them, gathered into a ball, and a third bolt arced into the sky in a continuous stream. His job done, Kenji began the trek home.

Chevron battle #2 (poison)

Cynder had reached the chevron somewhere around the same time as Kenji. As she touched down her vision darkened. When it cleared, she couldn't believe her eyes. "No, your dead." She whispered.

"No thanks to your betrayal." Malefor growled. "This place, it brought me back for the sole purpose of killing you. A task which I hesitate to do."

Cynders gaze hardened. "Well I don't!" She leapt at Malefor, sheathing her body in poison Malefor yawned and a blast of earth energy shot from the ground in front of him, knocking Cynder away.

"Honestly Cynder, it was luck that you beat me with Spyros help, what makes you think you can beat me alone?"

"He's right; I don't have a chance alone…" Cynder thought. "But I have to try!" Cynder shot a blast of fear, which Malefor simply walked through, laughing.

"Fool, I gave you those powers, do you honestly think they could harm me?" Malefor then opened his mouth and a geyser of fire shot out, Cynder countered with a gust of wind. She then counterattacked, spraying a jet of shadow at him, This time it hit, Malefor cried out in pain and Cynder pounced, aiming for the throat. However, Malefor was faster and caught her in midair, pinning her to the ground and leering at her from above.

"Hmmm… Takes you back doesn't it?"

"What are you talking about?" Cynder snarled while trying to break free.

"You don't remember? Perhaps your new mate pushed your memories away."

"New? What are you-" Cynder stopped struggling and looked up in horror.

"Ahh, are you starting to remember now?" Malefor asked with a triumphant grin.

"No! That's not true! That's impossible!" Cynder stammered.

"Heh, you showed your prowess as a child, why do you think I needed you as an adult?" Then Malefor released her and backed away. Cynder got up and stared at him.

Cynders thought raced. "Is what he says true? I don't remember but… What he says makes sense. What about James? Is he really even Spyros?"

Malefor grinned. "So Cynder? What will you do? Will you kill your old lover? I can say with some fondness it was very consensual."

"I-I don't know… I love Spyro!"

"Humph! You don't have to tell him, just leave."

Cynder honestly didn't know what to think, what to do, or what to say when she heard a new voice.

"He lies, Cynder."

"Ignitus?" Cynder asked to thin air.

"Yes young dragon, my time is coming, but as my last act as Chronicler, I will ease your doubt, He lies to you, and He was never your lover Cynder. And tell Spyro that I'll always be proud of him, and that I love him." After that, his voice trailed off until Cynder was once again alone.

"Well?" Malefor repeated. "Are we done talking to ourselves?"

Cynder rounded on him. "Liar, just like always."

His grin vanished. "Very well, if you will not leave willingly, then you will die!" Malefor shot a blast of convexity which Cynder caught on her wing and deflected.

As she lowered her wing, Malefor could see her smirk. "You're definitely not Malefor. I've known stronger hatchlings."

Enraged, the doppelganger fired a massive wave of purple energy, Cynder took the blast full in the chest and walked through it until she was within range.

She whipped around, her tail blade moving too fast to see, Malefors head separated from it's body, before both faded. She watched the apparitions fade, saying "Your strength comes from your deception, we think you're real, and your attacks become real. Once I saw through your lies though, you were powerless.

Cynder turned and walked up to the panel, placed her paw on it, and watched as the obelisks markings began to glow a sickly green, before the whole structure split and fired it's energy into the sky.


	24. Chevrons 3, 4

Chevron battle #3 (Shadow)

Spyder had been accompanied by her fiancée, Fever to the chevron. He told her he would make sure she was safe. As they landed and stared at the massive monolith, they had no idea just how wrong Fever was.

Spyder began walking, "Come on Fever, let's do this thing!" she said with a giggle. She stopped and turned to Fever. "What's the hold up? Apes in your pants?" Then she tilted her head to the side, something seemed a bit… off about Fever.

Suddenly Fever pounced on Spyder, teeth bared. However, this caught her attention less than the fact that despite his aggression, his eyes were blank, emotionless and flat.

"F-Fever?" Spyder said, Fever didn't respond, but lunged at her throat. Spyder used her shadow powers to turn to a mist and escape, Fever only got a mouthful of dirt. Spyder re-formed and Fever again lunged at her, his eyes still showing no life. Spyder didn't want to hurt him so she tried to immobilize him by taking over his body.

As her eyes glowed white, the shadows clung to Fevers body, but almost as quickly, they dispersed. "What?" She exclaimed, barely dodging Fever. As she landed, she turned and faced him. "Fever! What are you doing? Stop, now!"

Fever didn't respond or even so much as act like he even heard, just pounced again. Spyder wasn't as strong as Fever, but she was agile where he wasn't. She dropped to the ground and swept her tail under Fever, tripping him, at the same time using Fevers body as an anchor, she jumped up, her tail caught under Fever and she swung in a tight arc to land on top of him.

"Fever! Snap out of it!" She raised a paw and slapped him across the face, for just an instant, the life came back to his eyes. He looked scared, then out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small pulse shoot from the chevron and hit Fever, once again, he was lost.

Fever struggled against Spyders grip, but she held him firm. It was then that Fever started to gain a red aura. Recognizing it, Spyder leapt clear just as his fury went off, incinerating the general area around him. As fast as she was, Spyder was still caught in the blast and was blown to the ground. When she tried to get up, she was greeted by the furious pain of burns on her front.

Pushing through the stabbing discomfort, Spyder looked at the situation with a sense of hopelessness, the chevrons defense was making her beloved fight to the death, how could she kill him? But if she didn't, Ōumĭ jiā would destroy everything! Her mind raced with possibilities of things she could do. She couldn't take his body, the chevron already had it… Then she remembered something Spyro had done with Cynder and told the others about.

Spyder circled Fever, who stood there with that blank look, following her. Spyder leapt at Fever, but he nimbly side-stepped her, every time she tried to touch him, he evaded. Growing angry, she reached deep inside herself and summoned her fury.

From Fevers perspective, Spyder had multiplied. James had told her about a book of sorts from the human world, where a character summoned shadow clones. This wasn't the same, they had no substance and were mere illusions, but the concept was the same.

All five of Spyder leapt as one, but then changed direction and came at Fever from different angles. Fever swept his fiery breath in a circle, each of the clones simply fading, but the real one had the time to tackle Fever to the ground. As Fever tried to angle his head to torch her, she drove it to the ground with a paw

She then thought as "loud" as she could, directing it at Fever. [Fever! Stop this! Please, I don't want to hurt you!]

Spyder was relieved and shocked when she heard him back, but it quickly turned to despair. [Spyder… I… can't control… just do it]

Spyder was taken aback by her beloved's acceptance of his fate, Fever sensed this and bucked her, in her moment of unbalance, Fever whipped around and now Spyder was the one underfoot. Tears ran down her face as she watched drool drip from Fevers jaws, as he prepared to ravage her throat. A growl escaped his mouth and he lunged

But got nothing but dirt. Spyder had remembered one of James's moves at the last moment, she had turned to a smoky vapor that hung around Fever.

[I'm not giving up on you!] Spyder yelled through her mind. Just as she started to re-form, she willed her insubstantial form to permeate Fever, the wisps of smoke slipped under his scales and his eyes turned black.

Now Spyder was in a place she had never seen, everything was fire, fire and something not quite tangible. As Spyder looked around, she saw Fever, she readied herself against attack, but it never came, Fever was in a spread-eagle position, each of his legs, wings and tail were up to the torso in seven shafts of light, but the light seemed corrupt somehow. She walked over to him. "Fever?" She looked around as her voice echoed into infinity.

Fever looked up, the fire in his eyes gone. "I can't help. I'm sorry." He let his head drop again.

She heard laughing behind her and turned to see an elder dragon behind her. It looked exactly like Fever, but older, thinner, more angled, and filled to the horns with malice.

"Who are you?" She asked, the dragon just chuckled.

"I don't know who you are, but you're not coming near Fever!"

"You don't get it yet?" The dragon said, but his voice was behind her, she turned around to face the dragon. Confusion spread through her as she turned around, the dragon was no longer where he was a moment before.

She turned back "How did you-" But her breath caught short as she saw Fever had vanished, instead the adult was imprisoned in the light, he leered at her.

"I AM fever! How do you expect to save him from himself?"

Spyder shook her head. "No, I don't believe you, where is Fever? Bring him back!"

The older laughed. "I can't bring my weak self here as you think of it, we're inside him, this is his mindscape, what his soul would look like were it a physical place. Meaning I can do anything I can imagine! How do you expect to drive me out?"

Spyder turned to face him, but the Fever she knew was once again imprisoned, she looked around for the old dragon, and turned to see his face mere inches from hers. She roared and swung out with a paw, but missed by a good 20 feet.

"You see? Reality has no hold here." The old dragon taunted.

Infuriated, Spyder opened her mouth and a jet of black flames shot out and hit her from behind. All the while the Dark Fever laughed.

As Spyder struggled to her feet, Dark Fever was grasping her by the wings, and they were falling to the ground, or the ground was moving up to meet them, in this place She couldn't tell. All Spyder knew was a dull thud, She screamed Fevers name, then nothing.

Fever watched all this with minor interest, he was held prisoner in his dark self's will, which was ironclad. But as he watched Spyder falling, he could see something around her, in this place where metaphor and thought is reality Fever could tell it was her fear. Fever had never "seen" fear before, and it frightened him. He knew that whatever he felt was a hundred times less than what Spyder felt and it ignited his inner fire again. All around him, the fire that made up this place leapt up and raged uncontrollably. Spyder screamed his name just as she hit the ground, she seemed to explode, turning into smoke.

The other intangible thing alongside the fire burst forth, blazing brighter than the fire that surrounded them, a million beams of the intangible shot out, shattering Fevers prison and he gave a defiant roar and charged his dark self, tears running down his face.

Dark Fever laughed from behind Fever, as he opened his mouth and spewed a stream of fire, Fever watched with a grim amusement from far above. "You're not the only one who can bend reality, you monster. You'll pay for slaying Spyder!"

As his rage built, the ground seemed to shake, the flames leapt higher, but were still muted by the brilliance of the intangible, which flowed like water to surround him, encasing him in a layer of it. It seeped into his skin and vanished. He walked to Dark Fever, who backed away. "What did you do?" It asked Fever opened his mouth to speak, but a voice behind him spoke first.

"That light, its love, isn't it?"

Fever turned around to see Spyder, intact. Fever rushed to her side and enveloped her in his wings, Spyder nuzzled as close to him as she could get. "Yes Spyder, my inner self is made of two things, my inner passion, and my love for you."

Dark Fever tried multiple times to attack, but each time, the intangible love flared up, driving him back, though he was the only one blinded.

Fever and Spyder turned to Dark Fever. Spyder spoke. "I know Fever, and you're not him. Look around you at Fevers core, there's no room for malice such as yours. The Chevron created you, and now we're un-making you."

Fever and Spyder opened their mouths and a jet of white and black fire erupted and twisted around each other, blending to form a current of the love that permeated Fevers being. As the blast struck the illusion, it twisted and distorted, as if it were in a kaleidoscope, then it seemed to expand like a balloon, light shooting from its eyes and mouth, and finally exploded, leaving nothing behind.

Fever looked at each other. "Let's get out of here." Fever said. Spyder nodded and they opened their eyes.

They looked around, they hadn't remembered closing their eyes, but as they took in their surroundings, they found themselves back in the real world.

Fever looked at Spyder. "Sorry for all that."

Spyder leaned over and kissed his cheek. "The only thing you have to apologize for is giving up until you thought I was dead. Never stop fighting, I didn't." Then she walked up and placed her paw on the chevrons panel. Arcs of black electricity raced into the ground and then up the chevron. It split in two from an obelisk to a massive V, the tips then bent and pointed at each other and fired bolts of black lightning, which collided and shot a black beam into the sky.

Fever looked at Spyder, who grinned. "I think we should get back now." She said. She walked up to and gave his lips one more kiss before they leapt into the sky.

Chevron battle #4 (Ice)

As Icera flew north, she had a feeling she knew where the chevron was. She put on all speed to reach it quickly.

Soon she beheld the monstrous mountain that was once her home, in another time and place. She angled upward toward the mountain. It was an arduous journey that only the foolish attempted.

She was no fool.

As she reached the base, she angled around the mountain. After an hours flight, she beheld her destination with a smirk. The northern side of the mountain was smooth and shallow, worn away by the constant ice storm blowing in from the north, the face was bowled out by the weather, creating what looked like a giant slide, it channeled all the wind up the face of the mountain, creating a massive updraft.

Icera flew straight into it, using her ice element to keep the stinging particles at bay, as soon as she hit the updraft she rocketed up the slope, the change of elevation was lost on her from the constant air pressure of the wind current.

Within minutes she had traveled ten miles into the sky, the air current was a pale blue, but as she left it and glided to the plateau of the ex-northern temple, aka. Midnight temple, the sky suddenly turned black from the lack of air. She quickly let all air out of her lungs and surrounded herself with an aura of icy air, which she let off over the course of a few minutes to allow her body to accept the low air pressure.

Looking behind her, she could see a column of blue, the air current, which folded over and sprayed life-giving air onto her from above. That air current was the only reason she could breathe at all up here. She looked around her with a sense of misery. The sky was always black from lack of oxygen, even in the middle of the day, hence the name Midnight temple.

However, that wasn't the source of her depression. Where any other person would just see ruins, she saw the house her sisters, Fira and Terra had defended the hatchlings from the Dark Masters army, and were slaughtered only after being forced to watch the hatchlings suffer.

Where someone else would see a shattered building and a pile of broken columns, she saw the entrance to the temple itself, where her mate had defended her retreat with his last breath, and fallen to the Dark master himself. This was a place of misery.

She looked around and saw the only place not ravaged by war and time, the obelisk in the center of the village, She and Sei had lived under it for two decades, waiting for him to grow strong enough to defend himself. It was this obelisk that was her destination.

When she reached there, she gazed up at it's arcane markings. She had never thought much of it. The elders before her drove in the importance of not touching this sacred object. Even when the Dark Master attacked, this site alone was spared. She wondered if he had known of it's importance as well.

As she approached, she heard laughing behind her. She turned and her eyes grew wide. The maniacal laughing stopped as the voices owner spoke.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it sister?"

Iceras face grew hard. "Byancyra" She whispered. Then her face softened and she closed her eyes, smiling. "No, you're not her. I killed her. And it felt good."

"Fool." Byancyra spat. "I was revived."

Iceras smile grew wider. "No, I don't think so. There is no way to bring a person back, it's impossible. After I thought Spyro had died with the Dark Master, I searched for weeks for a way, any way. If he had died in hell, there would have been no chance for him to escape." She opened her eyes and glared at Byancyra with a gaze icier than the air around them. "I don't know who you are, but you can't bring the dead back!"

This time it was Byancyras turn to smile. A twisted grin that sent shivers down Iceras spine. She said nothing, but lifted her paw to reveal a small orb, which she rolled to Icera. As it rolled to a stop, Icera could see through the clear orange material four dark orange stars aligned in a perfect square.

"Ōumĭ jiā brought seven of these and some old green man out of another world and used them to bring me back. This is the only one left in this world, the other six were sent back."

"Why not all seven?" Icera asked.

"So that they can't wish something that could cause a problem to Ōumĭ jiā."

"What would your mate think if he saw you now?" Icera asked.

"Idiot." Byancyra said "He'd be glad that I'm finally going to dispose of you. You and your family were a thorn in his side until the end." Byancyras smile vanished, replaced by malice. "You'll pay for taking Malefor from me!"

Byancyra raised her tail over her head in a scorpion-like fashion. Icera smiled as she dodged the electro-lasso. "Honestly, don't you have anything new?"

"How about this?" Byancyra yelled. Blue lightning shot form her body and vanished. An instant later Icera was surrounded in a dome of blue energy, which splintered into countless shards that came at her from all sides.

Icera countered by emitting a wave of icy energy in a rainbow dome that knocked aside the bolts and shoved against the electro-dome, they fought against each other for a moment, before the ice prevailed, an explosion sounded across the mountaintop, Icera flew from the smoke cloud with Byancyra in pursuit.

In the air, Byancyra tried to hit Icera with her lightning, and though it moved almost instantaneously, Icera seemed to know exactly where she would fire and evaded. Then Icera flared a wing and point-turned to face Byancyra, I beam of rainbow energy shooting from her mouth, Byancyra surrounded herself in blue energy and plowed through the attack, slamming into Icera. Both dragons froze in midair as they collided, great arcs flying off Byancyra in a conical pattern around her sister, after a moment they both flew backwards, Byancyra a few yards while Icera shot off like a bullet from a gun.

As Icera steadied herself, she looked down at Byancyra, who radiated hidden power. Something had happened, she wasn't this strong before. Icera would have to think this battle through; a contest of strength would end with her dead.

Icera angled down to a freefall, which she accelerated by flying down, soon she was rocketing towards the ground; she looked behind her to see her sister in pursuit. She grinned and angled to go off the plateau. He sister took the opposite route.

They flew around the mountain, going faster and faster with the aid of their elements, creating aerodynamic sheathes around their body, appearing as nothing more than blue and rainbow streaks forming a double helix around the mountain. Even as the mountain widened, they went faster still. Midway down Icera solidified her massive sheath into a missile of ice, and the added weight provided just enough extra speed so that when she next passed Byancyra, she broke through the sound barrier. A massive explosion ripped through the air, taking Byancyra completely off guard, at that speed; as she flinched; she flared her wings slightly, but just enough for the wind to catch them.

As her wing bones shattered, any scream that left her lips was lost in the wind, Iceras ice missile slowed from air resistance and she shattered it, slowing further still, on her next pass, they were in the air current form the north, she passed under her gyrating sister and fired an ice fury. An orb of energy so cold, it liquefied the air shot from her mouth. As the liquid oxygen hit Byancyra, she froze, her motionless body arced downward until on the icy fields far below she hit, breaking into countless pieces. Which were swept away on the wind.

As Icera made her way back to the obelisk atop the mountain, passed by where they had stood, the orange sphere was nowhere to be seen. Icera quickly put it from her mind and touched the panel. A current of rainbow energy flew up the chevron as it activated, splitting into a V and firing the energy high into the sky.


	25. Chevrons 5, 6 Lost version

Chevron battle #5 (Fear)

Under normal circumstances flying all day would be exhausting, but for Sei it was easy; especially at this altitude. He had grown up at the midnight temple, hiding from the Dark Master in the bitter cold, the thin air, and the low oxygen. His mother had been unaffected being an ice dragon who had also grown up in those conditions, but for him it was a torturous childhood. But it had made him strong.

At this altitude, the air was thick against his wings, there was more oxygen then he knew what to do with, and it was blessedly warm. He would never take that for granted. So when he saw the spire in the distance that marked the end of his long journey, he put on more speed.

The Chevron was somewhere nearby. It was still out of sight, yet Sei could feel it. It had a dark aura that resonated with him somehow. As he flew on, he could see an object jutting into the sky. Sei angled toward it. As he grew closer, the object grew in clarity until he landed in front of it.

The chevron, like the others, was several hundred feet tall, with arcane markings adorning the surface. At the base was a glowing panel. Surrounding the chevron was a paved section of earth.

As Sei stepped on the cobblestone, he felt a pulse emit from the chevron and pass through him. Sei looked himself over and determined that it hadn't done anything to him. Shrugging, Sei stepped forward and placed his paw on the panel.

Nothing happened.

Confused, Sei patted the panel several more times before he heard laughter behind him. He turned to face this newcomer.

The dragon had maroon scales, his wings, belly and ridges were black with silver accents either bordering the edges or bisecting the horns. The "whites" of his eyes were black, while his pupils were crimson. And his tail was spiked like a stegosaur.

Seis eyes grew wide. "you-you're…"

"I'm you." The dragon finished. "More accurately, I'm a very special part of you."

"So… I'm assuming the chevron made you?" Sei asked

"That's right. As its defense." He grew a wide grin. "Are you ready?"

Readying to fight, Sei got a surprise. "Why can't I access my element?"

Fear pursed his lips and a small ring of red floated out and wrapped its way around Sei, who shuddered as the power instantly brought to mind his every fear, things he had long ago quelled and forgotten. "Because." He said. "That's the special part of you that I am, I'm the physical manifestation of your element. You may call me Fear."

Sei shook his head, pulling the thoughts of death and fire back into the recesses of his mind. Sei laughed. "That's original. And by the way, I've learned long ago through childhood idiocy how to master my own fear,

Fear shrugged."I only exist as long as you're here, so why do I need a fancy name? It's only for your convenience anyways."

"Heh. I kind of imagined the chevrons defense to be less… polite."

Fear smiled. "You won't leave this place, so why be rude, I'll be the last person you ever see, might as well make it pleasant…ish"

Sei lowered himself into a crouch. "Lets go then." And he leapt at Fear.

"Stop."

Sei skidded to a stop, his claw mere inches from Fears face, who hadn't moved at all, or shown any signs of aggression. He slowly lowered his paw, a confused look on his face. "Why?"

"Because," Fear said. "This isn't how we're going to settle this. I've changed my mind, even if you lose, you can leave, but you won't care."

"What do you mean?" Sei asked.

"The way this works, is I'll use my- er, I mean, our fear element to a degree you've never imagined, since I'm no longer limited by your strength, I can do things impossible even if your strength was infinite. We will play a game."

"What game?" Sei asked.

Fear laughed. "We will see who can endure the most pain. You call it self-mutilation, but when you leave, your injuries will heal, so long as you don't damage anything vital, you will not die."

"And the wages?" Sei asked.

Fears smile grew a bit cruel as he said "Everything you hold dear, If you want to know more, then accept my challenge."

"And if I refuse?"

"If you kill me instead, or time runs out and I dissipate you will never get your fear element back, and never open the chevron."

Sei growled. "Fine, how does this work?"

"Like this." Fear said, and then he brought his tail swinging around and left three shallow holes in his own flank, which gently oozed blood. "Match or beat it."

"How do I know you feel pain?" Sei asked.

Fear shrugged. "I'm a part of you, not some illusion, just as you feel, so do I."

"Fine." Sei growled, then squeezed his eyes and swung his tail, leaving three deep gashes along his side, he roared at the sudden blast of pain. In the background, Fear laughed.

"Ha! Not too steady are you?"

Sei opened his eyes and grinned. "Not really, I'm used to swinging to kill, on the bright side though, you have to beat that."

Fear eyed the rivulets of blood flowing down Seis side with distaste, before bending down and ripping a chunk out of his foreleg with his teeth, growling, then spitting it at Seis feet with a roar of pain. "Believe me now?" he growled through clenched teeth. "Can you bite yourself?"

"Sei looked at the chunk of flesh at his feet, he could almost feel the flesh being torn from his arm, just the thought was too much, he hung his head. "No, I can't."

Fears eyes grew maniacal. "Then you lose this round, now, see what you lose."

As Sei watched their wounds sealed before his eyes; leaving no trace, and no pain behind. And a tendril of black liquid seemed to seep from his forehead and form into a sphere in front of him.

"What is that Fear?" Sei asked.

"What, it's a memory. Don't you remember?" He said in a mocking tone. "You still have access to it, for now." The sphere floated to Fears side.

"Which memory?" Sei demanded, his calm demeanor starting to crack. As he watched, the orb lit up, revealing Cynders face. She turned to look at him before the orb went dark again." "What the-" Sei gasped.

"That's right." Fear said. If you lose, then I break this orb, and you forget Cynder ever existed, even if you were to stumble across her again, she would be a perfect stranger with an odd obsession with you."

"You beast!" Sei yelled. "Don't you dare! If you do anything, I'll-"

"You'll what? Kill me? I stop existing in a while anyways, what do I care? And if you kill me now, the orb crumbles on its own, and your fear element disappears with me. Now then, will you bee a good sport and continue?"

Seis eyes radiated hatred. He said nothing, but instead whipped out with his left paw and slashed his Achilles tendon, his right leg suddenly going limp and pooling blood.

"Your turn."

Fear growled and slashed his own wrist, then as he collapsed, used the momentum to bring his right paw across his left ankle, severing his other leg, he collapsed on his face, then fell to his side, looking up at Sei. "Your… turn." He growled.

Sei looked at his wrist, and unable to move his right paw, bent down and tore his wrist out with his teeth. As he collapsed, he realized what a costly mistake that was; his mouth tore far too deep, he would bleed out now. As his vision faded, he felt the pain fade. He thought that at least he would die with his mind intact, but his vision returned as the pain vanished.

"Get up." Fear commanded, his wounds gone. Sei looked down and realized his legs were once again intact. As he stood, a white tendril seeped from his head to join the white orb, this one momentarily showing Iceras face.

"No… not her too. That's my family…" Sei moaned. Fear shrugged. Next is your sister's mate, along with their children. I figure three rounds are enough to prove you lost. Then you can wander the earth until it's a dead orb, not knowing anyone, eventually you will even forget yourself.

Sei looked directly at Fear, eyes burning with hate, and determination. "Fine, you want to play this sick game so badly? Well here's the lightning round." Sei smiled cruelly, he had an advantage Fear didn't seem to know about or he would never have challenged him to this contest. While spying on Byancyra all those years ago, part of his training in her army to get higher in rank was learning the anatomy of dragons in exquisite detail.

So Sei positioned his seventh and eighth spikes pointing straight out from his tail tip up at himself, and thrust.

The pain was excruciating. The burning, stabbing, slashing cold pain was so intense he could almost feel the cellular bonds being broken, nerve fibers being exposed to the air before being torn themselves. It seemed to him the motion was in slow motion, each second that passed he could feel his spikes entering deeper and deeper. Even though it lasted only a fraction of a second.

Fear Looked in amazement at Seis tail, all two and a half feet of the spikes were buried in his belly. Sei winced at what had to come next, the withdrawal. This was when he found out if his training had saved himself, or if he had punctured a kidney, stomach, blood vessel, or the like. His spikes curved gently, so when he tensed and ripped them from his body, they tore more flesh, blood spurting on the ground and Fears face.

Sei collapsed to the ground in the burning pain, but pushed it aside and stood up, blood

dripping from the wounds. "Beat… that." He said.

Fear looked at the wound, then shook his head and thrust, His tail penetrated his belly just like Sei, but then he collapsed. He tried to get up, but seemed too weak

Sei limped over to Fear, "If you can remove your tail, we can continue." Fear tried, but it seemed stuck."

"What's wrong with me?" Fear yelled. Sei smiled sadistically. "You didn't know about where you were stabbing. You recklessly went in and guess what? You severed your spinal cord. You're paralyzed from that point down. You can't continue, so I win by default.

Then it happened, their bodies began healing, their blood returning. Seis head screamed in pain as his blood pressure rocketed, then when he thought he would die from the pain alone, it equalized, settling to a dull throb.

As Fear got up, a crimson stream flowed from his head and flew to Sei, whose grin had grown cruel. "Now you pay Fear."

"Why? What memory did you take?"

The crimson orb liquefied again and flowed into Sei, who suddenly burst with red power.

As he opened his eyes, they glowed red. "I took your memories on using the fear element." As he said this, everything seemed to turn grayscale and Sei was gone.

Fear looked around. "Wh-where am I?" a voice came from all around him.

"You're here."

"Where's here? Show your-" Fear was cut short by Sei, who had appeared out of nowhere. There was a thud and Fear looked down. He saw the blood about the same time he registered the pain. He let out a howl of pain before Sei withdrew his claws and stabbed him again.

Amid Fears cries of pain, Sei said "This is my fury, by the time I'm done with you here, you'll be a shell of your former self."

"You can't! What about Ôumí Jiâ?"

"You threatened my family, At this point I don't care about anything but making you pay." Fears eyes widened, then he let out a scream as Sei swung his tail, sending the two long spikes on the tip into Fears belly. Then Sei twisted as he drew them out, eliciting another scream from Fear. Then Sei stood on his hind legs and thrust his fists into the holes, tearing them wider and opening his claws inside, grinding bones and twisting organs.

Again and again Sei took out his anger, rage, fury on Fear, each time Fear thought it couldn't get worse, Sei found a new way to increase his pain, whether it was stabbing him, cutting him, chewing parts off, or grinding stones into the gashes, Somehow Seis power kept him from dying and he was made to endure the endless pain. Fear watched the sun, hoping he would quit.

He didn't. For two weeks he kept it up, Fears pain only subsiding at night while Sei slept, then the sun rose and the pain began anew, his screams of agony heralding the coming of dawn. Sei even built a fire and heated iron, which he used to brand and mutilate Fear.

Finally, when the screams stopped, Sei walked over to Fears torn and twisted body, there wasn't much left, and only his power was keeping Fear alive. He lifted Fears limp head. "I'm just getting started, don't you care?"

"No… I can't… feel."

"Hmph. Good." Sei said, the world flashed and color returned to everything, the first thing Fear noticed was the lack of pain, he looked down, there wasn't a scratch on him.

"What the?" he stammered, Sei walked past him to the white and black orbs, which reabsorbed into his mind.

Then Sei turned to face him. "That was my fury, do you know how much time passed? About five seconds." Fear gaped at Sei. "Then all that I endured…"

"Never really happened." Sei finished. Sei stepped forward and pressed his paw to the panel. This time crimson energy pulsed into the ground, and shot up the chevron, which split into a massive V shape. The energy then arced between the points, gathered into a large ball, and shot into the sky. Sei turned around to see that Fear, along with all his blood, was gone.

"That's what you get for messing with my family." Sei whispered, and took off, back home.

Chevron Battle #6 (Earth)

Kwaik was still getting over the shock. He had been pulled through some kind of portal to the future, a future where his own son was hundreds of years older than him In this time, Malefor, A childhood friend had apparently taken the path of darkness and tried to destroy everything. Kwaik just couldn't wrap his head around it.

Thankfully he had been stopped, another purple dragon, then only a child had defeated Malefor, and when he returned years later had defeated him again.

Now Kwaik was a guardian, replacing his own son, Terrador. And since this new evil, Oûmi Jiâ was threatening his new home; he would do everything to stop it.

As Kwaik flew onwards, he saw someone collapsed on the ground. He partially folded his wings and dived down, flaring them out at the last moment to swoop upwards, cutting the rest of his speed, he then fell the few feet to the ground and stared in utter shock at the dragon child before him.

He couldn't have been older than fifteen, barely older than Spyro the first time he defeated Malefor. The child's scales were a forest green; his orange wings were torn and bloody, matching the rest of his body. His ridges looked like small stones poking from his spine and his tail ended in a smooth sphere, the spikes had yet to grow in.

Kwaik stood; petrified as the phantom Terrador, the age he was when Kwaik vanished looked up with tear filled eyes. As the tears rolled down his face and mixed with blood he said "Why? Why did you leave?"

Kwaiks eyes blurred with tears as he said "I didn't mean to…"

"Why did you leave…" the phantom whispered before slumping to the ground, it's eyes closed and it's breathing stopped.

"Terry…" Kwaik whispered, he reached out to touch his son, but his paw passed through, the phantom rippling like a disturbed reflection before fading.

For the longest while Kwaik stared at the ground the phantom Terrador died on, trying to think. About what, he didn't know. He just knew he couldn't focus; the waves of guilt that surged through his were too strong to do anything. It was then that Kwaik eard a familiar voice behind him.

"It's your fault you know."

Kwaik turned to face his best friend growing up, his purple scales were lighter than in his later years, and his eyes were white; not yellow, but other than that Malefor looked the same as he did when Spyro faced off against him years later.

"Malefor?" Kwaik said, drying his tears. "It's been so long."

"Too long." Malefor replied. "You know how reckless I was, you always kept me from doing stupid things. With you gone, I made horrible choices. Look what became of the world because of me." He said, looking around.

"Malefor, I didn't have a choice in what happened, it just happened, you can't pin your choices on me."

Malefor snorted. "I'm not pinning anything, it's just a fact. After you left, I threw the world into chaos." Malefor looked up at a passing cloud.

"You didn't have to, just because I left don't mean it wasn't you who decided to walk the path of darkness."

Still looking up, Malefor said "So, you admit that you left on purpose?"

"No! I-" Kwaik stopped as Malefor lowered his gaze to him, his eyes were yellow.

"Did anyone ever tell you it was I who killed your mate?" Malefor grinned at Kwaiks shocked look. "Now it's time to finish it!" Malefor leapt at Kwaik, turning black as pitch as he did so. Kwaik yelled and covered himself with his wings, but the impact never came. He slowly lowered his wings to find Malefor had vanished.

What's going on? He thought to himself

"The Chevron is trying to warn you, father." A baritone voice said from behind him.

Kwaik wheeled around to see Terrador, the adult one standing behind him. Further on was the chevron, so absorbed was he with the phantoms that he hadn't even noticed it.

"Warn me of what?" Kwaik asked.

"Of the mistake your making. Think about it, if you wait to activate the chevron, the super portal can go anywhere, or anywhen. You can go back, save mother, stop Malefor from making that choice, stop all this from happening.

Kwaik nodded, it made sense. "But how can we get the other's cooperation?"

"That's… the other thing. Flame was… killed by the chevron. It wont work now anyways, there are pleny of other dragons though, I'm sure we can get the cooperation of the seven we need."

Kwaiks head hung, now even his new friends were dying. Suddenly an idea struck him. "Terry, what if we got James to use his chaos powers to open a portal back home? We wouldn't need to go through all that."

"James died too."

Kwaik nodded "And what of Spyro? He taught his son how to use his light powers and he can also use shadow, couldn't he also use chaos and make a portal?"

"Spyro died too."

Kwaik grinned. "What about using the power gems?"

"You'll never find them in time."

"Of course not Terry, they don't exist anymore, Spyro destroyed them, I thought you knew that?"

Beads of sweat started to form on Terradors brow. "O-of course I knew that. I was testing you of course."

"Uh-huh." Kwaik said. "The Terrador I knew would never test someone like that, he'd confront them directly about it."

"It's been many years since you last saw him." Terrador said.

Kwaik began walking past "And he would never, EVER talk in the third person, I don't know or care who you are, but you're getting out of my way."

The phantom Terrador stepped in front of Kwaik, who sighed, "Seriously? They didn't make me a guardian for nothing, and since you're not real, I have no qualms against utterly destroying you."

The phantom squared it's shoulders and shot an earth missile at Kwaik, just as powerful as the real Terrador.

Kwaik, who was smaller and younger, nimbly jumped out of the way and shot a missile of his own, which passed through. Frowning, he used his powers to form an earth sphere and spun at high speeds, preparing to shoot at the phantom with incredible force.

Before he could though, the phantom opened his mouth and an orb of green energy shot out, shattering the sphere and knocking Kwaik back a few paces, leaving claw marks in the earth.

Kwaik opened his mouth, a pulse of en energy shot out with a thunderous repot that echoed across the land. The blast obliterated the earth in front of Kwaik, sending debris into the deadly storm of earth energy that raced toward the phantom.

The phantom opened his mouth and another massive concussion ripped through the air as he shot his own blast, which hit Kwaiks, causing them to combine and explode between them with enough force to leave a crater in the ground.

Kwaik nodded and shot a second blast at his own feet, sending up a smokescreen of dust. The phantom ran forward, intent on preventing Kwaik from escaping; he loosed an orb of energy that erupted into a cyclone that swept away the dust.

Kwaik was gone. The phantom heard laughing and turned to see Kwaik at the chevrons base.

"That was a good fight; our strength is about equal, so I figure it's a big waste of time to fight." The phantom shouted something, but Kwaik didn't listen, but placed his paw on the panel.

A surge of green energy shot from him and up the chevron as the phantom faded. The chevron split into a massive V shape and fired an arc of energy skyward. As Kwaik watched it, he thought I was sent here for a reason, some bad things may have happened, but if that's the cost, then the reward must be good. After he watched the energy bolt fade into the sky, he returned to the air and started home.


	26. Chevrons 7, 8

Chevron battle #7 (Fire)

Flame had been flying for quite some time and frankly, it was wearing him out. Having lived in Stonefeild for most of his life, he had little need to fly as the whole city was underground. Now he wished he had spent more time outside instead of staying to himself mostly.

Ever since he had left childhood, he had seen the corruption in Stonefeild for what it was. People there never left those halls and developed customs separate from the rest of the world. Things considered law there were looked at from outside as taboo and blasphemy. Flame saw this and refused to be a part of it. As such he was ridiculed for being soft, weird and perverted when it was actually the other way around.

Ember also saw the corruption but tried to fix it however she could, with limited success. When she saw Flame and his purity, she became attracted to him and they devoted themselves, most people ridiculed Ember for her poor choice of mate, the exceptions being the handful of people who she had shown the light and had also turned from the corruptive society that was Stonefeild.

When they left, Ember had left a legacy of dragons determined to end the corruption of their home, and Flame had left an impression, the "soft pervert" had been chosen by the outside to be a leader. Flame hoped they would realize the significance in this, and perhaps take a step back to see what they've become. Flame was glad to have left that city, a modern Babylon. But someday he would return to end the corruption once and for all.

Flame brought himself out of his thoughts to look around at where he was. Below him was red stone stretching on for miles, the weak sandstone had eroded over time and he gazed down at a magnificent matrix of canyons.

The massive scars in the earth were sometimes narrow and sharp, as though a giant knife had split the earth, other places they were wide and sloping, as if the walls had melted and flowed over any sharp angles. Here and there were waterfalls shooting from the canyon walls, but no river. He could smell fresh water, but these falls were the green of saltwater, sometime in the past, the main river had eroded away the ceiling of a huge cave complex. The river then went underground, mixing with the salt, sand and limestone of the underground network, and pouring out the canyon walls from underground saltwater rivers.

Here and there, particularly ear a waterfall, a tree would grow from the wall, the trunk curving upwards towards the sun. birds nests were in many of these trees. Any other life was scarce.

As Flame flew on, he saw a hole in the earth, directly under the hole was a stone formation, but its angles were far too accurate to be natural. Flame angled down to get a better look. His wings folded, he shot through the hole and flared his wings in the darkness.

As Flame landed, he gazed up at the structure, only the tip was visible in the narrow shaft of light that spilled in from the opening. All around him was the roar of running water echoing off the walls. Flame opened his mouth and shot a fireball into the darkness, it then compressed and began exploding, but very slowly, Flame was controlling its burn rate so the light would last for several minutes. What he saw both awed and shocked him.

The cavern he was in was massive; at least half of Warfang could fit inside. In the center was the chevron, its pyramid tip pointing directly at the hole in the ceiling. The walls around him had many waterfalls pouring out into holes bored into the floor. If there was a bottom, it was impossible to tell. But that's not what shocked Flame.

At the base of the chevron lay Ember, bound and gagged. Next to her was a creature the likes of which Flame had never seen.

It was a Purple reptile of some sort, It resembled the spawn of a dragon and some feral beast, it's eyes were crimson and its short, pug like face matched it's short squat body, with its legs jutting out from it's body at angles like that of a chameleon. Its tail resembled a snakes rattle, and its teeth poked down from below its upper lip.

"Who are you?" Flame asked, slightly disgusted by the thing.

When it spoke, it was in a nasally voice accompanied by snorts and slurping noises. "I'm Spyro"

Flame couldn't help himself, he started laughing. The creature cocked it's head quizzically, much like a dog. Flame managed to stop laughing long enough to say "I know Spyro, you're not him. I mean, his children are taller than you!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, I'm Spyro, how can there be more than one me?"

Flame walked over, the humor had worn off as quickly as it came. "What are you doing with her?" He said, referring to Ember, he had to play this carefully, he didn't know the mental state of this thing who thought it was Spyro.

"This is Ember, She liked me for a long time and I didn't. But Now I do and she doesn't. But I know she still does inside, So I'm taking her home with me until her feelings return."

At the mention of her name, Embers eyes opened a crack. "Flame… Help me."

Flame nodded and Ember shut her eyes again. Flame returned to looking at the creature. AS he spoke, he ever so slowly circled to get himself between Ember and "Spyro". "and where is your home?"

"Skyland, I'm friends will Gill Grunt." Flame shook his head. _**This thing is completely insane, he doesn't make any sense at all.**_

Suddenly "Spyro" realized Flame was now between him and his prize. "What do you think you're doing, She's my girlfriend!"

Flame smiled. "Sorry to break it to you, but You're too late, she's my mate.

"Spyros" eyes widened. "No. You lie!"

Behind them, Ember whispered "It's true."

Goblin Spyros mood quickly changed then. "Ember was supposed to be mine! You'll pay for this!" Goblin Spyro shot out a fireball, which Flame countered with one of his own, both hit and splashed flames everywhere. Goblin Spyro then charged Flame, knowing he couldn't dodge without letting him hurt Ember, and he didn't, Flame instead sidestepped and clamped onto goblin Spyros wing with his jaws and whirled around, building on his opponents own momentum and sending him flying several yards. Goblin Spyro jumped up and whirled in midair, sending a barrage of fireballs at Flame, who stood there, protecting Ember.

Goblin Spyro landed and walked toward the cloud of smoke, a smug look on his face. But as the cloud cleared, his smile vanished. Flame hadn't budged, but there wasn't a single burn on him. Goblin Spyro fired another ball at Flame, it hit him in the face and his head whipped back, but Flames check was unburned as he turned to look at his opponent again.

"Face it, you're outclassed. You're not even that strong, and I'm a guardian. Simply put, you can't beat me."

"Oh no?" Goblin Spyro said. "Try this on for size!" He opened his mouth and an arc of blue lightning shot out, hitting Flame and throwing him off his feet and over Ember, skidding to a stop several yards away. He tried getting up, but the residual electricity was interrupting his nervous system, sending false signals to his brain, which made his body twitch and jerk.

As Goblin Spyro walked over to Ember, he said "I don't just have fire ya know. I'm full of tricks." He looked up at Flame and prepared to shock him again when Flame darkened and faded to a thick oily smoke. "What?"

"I'm full of tricks too." Flame said behind him. Goblin Spyro wheeled around, only to be knocked into the air by a vicious uppercut from Flames horns. Flame flew after him and slashed at him with claws and tail, but each time goblin Spyro managed to block it, a after which he spat a cloud of frigid air, Flame countered with a stream of scorching fire, on contact a huge cloud was created, Flame terminated the fire, in the deep fog he had no clue where "Spyro" was, to make matters worse the slow burning fireball was going out. Flame raised his head and fired another one. When he looked down, he saw a flash of movement in the fog, then it was gone.

With Ember bound, Flame was unable to use his fury, so he did the next best thing, He took to the air, looking down, he saw a flash of purple where he had been just a moment before. Once above the fog, he opened his mouth, a jet of flame screamed out, billowing and expanding when it hit the ground, creating a massive inferno that grew, curved in on itself and collapsed, making way for the new flame underneath. The firestorm grew until it consumed the entire cloud, then Flame exercised his control over fire, jerking his head back, the fire stopped growing and imploded before it could consume Ember.

Once the fog was burned off, Flame looked around for the small dragon, before he could react, a frigid wind hit him from behind, throwing him to the ground, where ice formed around him, encasing his body in a thin layer of ice. The cold sapped his body of strength and he could no longer feel his limbs, let alone move them. As he breathed fire on himself, a torrent of water hit him, dousing his flame and freezing on contact with the ice as the frost crept towards his mouth and nose, the small goblin Spyro landed and walked toward ember "Looks like you're all mine now that that red dragons out of the way."

_**Forgive me.**_ Flame thought as he delved into his energy and released the fire fury.

The Ice coffin shattered in a flare of sanguine light, the goblin Spyro wheeled around and tried to hit Flame with another last of electricity, the arc flew at flame, then changed course just before it hit him, blasting the floor. Flame then looked at the goblin Spyro as he got up. His quarry tried to run, but Flame opened his mouth and a tongue of fire raced toward goblin Spyro. The dark red fire wrapped around goblin Spyro, who yelled in pain as it burned, then the flames, still poring from Flames mouth angled up, carrying goblin Spyro with them, Flame turned, whipping his neck, the fire followed, sending goblin Spyro flying through the air. But Flame didn't let him go, he instead snapped his neck back, sending goblin Spyro flying overhead, only then did the fire release him, to burned to move, he could do nothing as he flew into one of the waterfalls, which caught him and shoved him down into the hole bored in the floor to depths unknown.

Flame then allowed the wild energies inside him to die down, the light ended, along with his fury. Flame walked over to Ember and with a claw, cut the ropes binding her. The metal muzzle, which Flame hadn't noticed before allowed her room to speak, but no enough to open her mouth to use fire. He grabbed the plate on the back of her head with both wing claws, one on each side and yanked in a scissor motion, the metal torqued and shattered, freeing Ember.

"How did you get here?" Flame asked. Ember shook her head.

"He surprised me one day and knocked me unconscious, I woke up bound and saw him before he started talking to me like we were mates. When I didn't answer, he knocked me out again, the next I woke up I was here. I couldn't see anything for a long time, until you showed up.

Flame nodded. "Are you ok? You can fly back?" Ember nodded, then kissed Flame.

"Thanks for rescuing me."

Flame blushed "Well… heh. Anytime." After that, he walked to the chevron and after looking it over a minute, found the panel and placed his paw on it. A current of fiery energy left his paw and down the panel before racing up the chevron, lighting up it's markings. When it reached the top, it split into a giant V, the tips angling inward to point at each other. Then they fired a beam of red energy at each other, which coalesced into a large ball that fired a red beam through the hole in the roof to the sky.

Flame went over to Ember, who had gotten up, kissed her again, this one lasting a few moments before they took off and shot through the hole to head back home.

Chevron battle #8 (Electricity)

Valcor had long ago reached the chevron, and had tried to activate it to no avail. The panel would react to him, but not send his energy to the obelisk. He had given up a while ago and now sat in meditation, trying to solve this dilemma.

In his minds eye he was in a land that embodied his soul. The land was dark soiled, good land for life to flourish, yet none did. The few trees here were old, twisted, barren and black. The same with the few shrubs that dotted the land, the earth was cragged and fissured. Directly above was the reason nothing grew, a massive storm cloud twisted overhead, like oil going down a drain. This huge storm never grew or shrank, no rain fell, but lightning constantly bombarded the earth, allowing nothing to grow, the death wrought by the force of nature killed everything, which became one with the earth, making it rich land if the lightning would ever abate, which of course it never would.

The sky to the east was pink and orange, like an eternal sunrise, the sun poked halfway above the horizon, casting an orange light on everything, never moving, an eternal sunrise.

The sky to the west was dark, like twilight, stars twinkled and the full moon hung low in the sky, an eternal night. Overhead, the sunrise melded with the twilight, there was no blue sky of day, just one changing to another.

Directly in the center of the scarred land was a small oasis of green life. Lightning would occasionally jump to this area, but an invisible force would deflect it. This oasis was about 20 feet in diameter, with grass six inches long, a large moss covered stone lay to one side and a small cherry tree in eternal bloom gently showered the stream underneath in pink petals. This stream originated from a small spring in the oasis and flowed out of the green area only to fall into a fissure a few feet away.

In the middle of this oasis sat Valcor, he wondered at this small garden, it had not een here before he met Zoulu, and it was larger than it had been, perhaps Zoulu was changing his inner being? Valcor gazed outward at the ravaged land and thought back to his life before her, he had been alone, always alone. Everyone shunned him and he shunned them back, His "Mother" Byancyra had tormented him as a child, it made sense that his soul was barren. When he met Zoulu, he finally had a reason to live, he was happy around her. He had even almost given his life to save her with no thought to his own safety, and again to save her family. Perhaps this oasis was the embodiment of his feelings for Zoulu?

Leaving his contemplation, Valcor looked at the two spirits before him. Ondonna, in the form of a great pink serpentine dragon hovered in the realm of sunrise, Tempes, the great black Wyvern, with massive wings and no forelegs stood in the realm of twilight.

He turned to Ondonna, who had a look as confused as his. _**In all my eons of existence, I have never seen this kind of technology, I could only suggest asking the Ancestors for guidance, but we have not the time.**_

_**Bah!**_ Tempes said _** You can solve any problem yourself, you just need to find the solution, I think we should destroy it.**_

_**Why?**_ Ondonna said. _** What will that accomplish besides dooming us all?**_

_**Maybe it's like nut.**_ Tempes suggested. _**Cracking it open reveals the sweet seed within.**_

Valcor shook his head. "No, destroying it won't help, it's some kind of energy conversion and direction device, I may have the energy inside me needed, but not in the form the portal needs to activate. Maybe it requires a certain technique?"

Ondonna spoke up _** I don't thing so, it was designed by humans, they would only be able to harness electricity, not bend it to their will as a dragon can. I'm almost certain it simply needs the energy to be present.**_

"Humans… so confusing, for such an advanced race, they seemed to be weak as a creature, only their technology made them powerful."

Tempes laughed _**You speak as if you weren't one!**_ Valcor shrugged.

"I may have been Stephan once, but he died, I lived my whole life not knowing of my past, I became a new person, as far as I'm concerned, I was never a human."

Tempes nodded as Ondonna came out of thought. _** Perhaps, there's something we missed.**_

_**No.**_ Tempes said. _** I didn't overlook anything, There wasn't much there, only a fool would fail to notice even the slightest detail.**_

"Well thanks Tempes." Valcor said. "I didn't notice what color the ants were, way to be supportive."

Tempes grinned _** Anytime.**_ Ondonna rolled her eyes.

After a few moments, Valcor said "Maybe… there's some information we don't have. Ondonna, what did you learn from the others?"

_**As a spirit, I can see and do many things you cannot comprehend, I've seen them all fight something or another, usually an enemy created by the chevron specifically to make the battle difficult for them.**_

Tempes took to the air, swinging his tail and ripping a hole in the fabric of the mindscape. _** It's settled then, Come Valcor, I've found the solution.**_

Valcor looked to Ondonna, who shrugged. He stood up and flew through the tear, ending up back in the real world.

All around them were trees, deep in this forest of giant trees, where those who enter can never leave the pines grew to heights of three hundred feet. The locals seemed to have a problem with dragons of an element not having to do with the four elements, and Valcor managed to bluff his way through by showing off his purple scales He had encountered a few voidlings, even his strongest attacks were useless, but with Tempes's power, his strength increased to the point that they weren't a problem.

Valcor looked to the clearing the chevron stood in, dwarfed by the trees and was shocked to see Tempes, who grinned.

_**The chevron needs a defense to fail before it will accept your power, since it has no natural defense, I'll defend it.**_

"What?" Valcor exclaimed. "I thought you were on my side!"

_**I am.**_ Tempes said. _**And right now, fighting you is the only way to stop Ôumí Jiâ.**_

Valcor glared at him. "Fine then." He began to summon Ondonna's power, but was again surprised when she stopped him.

_**I cannot aide you in this fight.**_ She said,_** I embody the light in your soul whereas Tempes embodies the darkness, both are needed to maintain a balance, if one of us were to conquer the other, calamity would ensue. You must fight this battle on your own.**_

Valcor closed his eyes and brought to mind a single image, a yellow dragoness that seemed to fill his waking hours and dominate his dreams. _** For Zoulu**_ He thought. Then opened his eyes and summoned a charge of lightning, sending arcs of lightning from the ground to writhe in the air. Tempes summoned an aura of darkness.

Eager to start, Valcor leapt at Tempes, using his electricity to accelerate. He collided with Tempes before he could react, there was a flash of lightning, and they flew apart, Tempes being thrown much farther than Valcor, who flipped and landed on his feet.

Tempes landed on his back and carved a furrow in th earth before slamming his tail on the ground, throwing himself back into the air, where he flipped and took off to the sky.

Valcor smile and took off in an explosion of lightning. He arced up towards Tempes, who looked down and breathed shadow flames on Valcor. At this speed he couldn't evade and flew straight into it. Immediately his momentum ceased and he stopped dead in the air. The shadow flames seemed to suck the very air out of his lungs, replacing it with a strange urge to sow anarchy.

_**Fight it Valcor.**_ Ondonna said. Valcor shook his head free of the confusion and thought quickly, he was running out of air, but he remembered that certain particles conducted electricity. He focused a large blast of lightning into a small orb in his mouth and released. The energy arced out in a million tiny bolts that seemed to energize the shadow flames, it glowed as it absorbed the lightning, and finally hit critical mass and exploded outwards. Valcor being in the center was unharmed. Tempes however was caught point-blank. He was thrown away, tail smoking.

Valcor flapped his wings to blow away the smoke ad watched Tempes fall to earth. Something changed just before he hit though, he seemed to fly at the ground, accelerating. When he hit, there was a brief flash and a black shockwave flew from a new crater too fast for Valcor to dodge. AS it flew at him he folded his wings, and just before it hit he flared open screaming as a yellow shockwave flew from him. Both energy waves hit each other and seemed to absorb one another, shrinking to a point until they were gone.

Tempes shot into the air and Valcor flew to intercept. Before they got free of the trees, the branches moved to completely block any escape, as Tempes stopped and turned in midair, Valcor slammed into him, clawing at his belly while Tempes snapped his jaws at Valcor's neck. They twisted in midair as they fell, each trying to tear at one another in their deadly embrace. Just before they hit the ground they untangled and Tempes, being larger got Valcor under him and used him as a springboard to launch himself into the air, shoving Valcor into the ground in the process.

Valcor shakily got to his feet and looked up at Tempes. _**Get up Valcor! Some guardian you are!**_ Tempes said.

"Jeez! Can't you take It easy on me?" Valcor said. But Tempes just laughed.

_**First, my honor wouldn't allow it, second, it wouldn't be so much fun!**_ Then Tempes seemed to vanish. Moments later Valcor was struck by an unseen force, leaving a gash in his side.

"Two can play this game." Valcor said and altered his internal electricity, creating a force that bent light around him, making him all but invisible. AS he did he saw a slight movement in the grass that headed towards him. He twisted and brought his bolt shaped tail spike to bear, he heard a grunt and a force press on his tail as Tempes collided with it. He later became visible and much to Valcor's surprise, his tail spike had lodged itself deep in Tempes's forehead. AS he dropped his own cloak Tempes fell to the ground, unmoving.

"Oh jeez! Tempes!" Valcor shouted and moved to help him when he felt a nudge from Ondonna. Taking a closer look, he saw there was no blood.

Valcor jumped back just as Tempes sprang to life, snapping at the air where he had been but a moment before.

_**Valcor**_ Ondonna said, _**We're spirits, you won't be able to kill him, only subdue him.**_

"But I thought you couldn't have bodies of your own?" Valcor asked.

_**The Chevron is lending him some unnatural power, when we leave this place, our ability to manifest will vanish.**_

Valcor nodded. Tempes could only be subdued? No problem.

Tempes got to his feet from playing 'opossum, and flew at Valcor, roaring his challenge while cloaking his body in shadow. The amount of energy in his shadow strike would kill any normal dragon. Valcor however was not a normal dragon.

Just as Tempes would hit Valcor, he opened his eye, which glowed yellow, and vanished. Moments later a yellow beam seemed to come out of nowhere and send a tearing pain through Tempes's very being. Before he could recover, there was another beam from another direction, ignoring the pain, he turned to search for the source of the attacks, instead a beam shot through him from the opposite direction. Tempes's vision grew fuzzy and he released all his energy in one final attack, a great cloud of shadow enveloped him and took the shape of a great dragon head, which them exploded in a malicious shockwave, just as another beam fired.

The beam collided with the shockwave and both stopped in midair, the yellow energy of the beam started to fall apart from the tail end and disintegrated until only the source was visible, glowing with a golden aura. Valcor pressed against this all out attack while pumping more energy into his fury, he honestly didn't think he would be able to defeat this attack. Then through the rippling air of the shockwave he watched Tempes fall to the ground, completely exhausted.

No longer with any reason to fight, Valcor reversed direction and arced upwards, the yellow beam curving over the shockwave to land beside Tempes, the yellow energy completely dissipating in a harmless ring that flew from Valcor's body. He looked down at Tempes, who truly was unconscious this time.

"Looks like I won?" He asked.

_**You did, little one.**_ Ondonna replied._** That's always been Tempes's style, even before we traveled to the physical world, to put everything into every attack, until he has nothing left and ends up like this.**_

Valcor nodded and touched the dragon, who faded from the physical world and reappeared in his consciousness. Valcor smiled at Tempes's moaning in pain and grumbling at being defeated by a mortal.

He then walked to the Chevron and placed his hand on the panel, a pulse of lighting left his body and shot into the chevron, lighting it up and causing it to split into a V shape, it then fired a yellow beam, which blew away the enchanted tree branches above, allowing Valcor an escape from the so-called inescapable forest. Valcor spread his wings and took flight.

Back at the Warfang Portal chamber:

Spyro waited eagerly with the others, James, Perrin, Ryan, Jacy, Kenji, Selena, the three ex-guardians, Terrador, Volteer, and Cyril. Even Hunter, Sparx, his wife, Shimmer and their son Lumi were there to see the fate of their world. No one said much as they waited in anticipation.

They looked up to watch as a small circular rainbow appeared in the sky, it kept their gazes as the beams flew down from the heavens and struck the huge portal they were all standing in front of.

The super portal resembled the chevrons in that it was ancient, with strange looking carvings all over it. Ryan looked at these and thought they looked like ancient Nazca markings. The base of each leg of the arch was cast in gold, and along the arch were nine gems. One by one they seemed to glow.

The ruby began to flicker, almost as though a flame resided behind or inside it. The opal glowed and frosted over, the citrine pulsed with an inner energy. The shimmering orange band of the tiger-eye seemed to grow until the entire brown semiprecious stone was an odd gold that changed in the light.

On the other side, the emerald glowed with a sickly light, the carbuncle next to it gave off an eerie light, the solid onyx next to that suddenly became transparent and inside a smoke seemed to swirl around and the diamond next to that seemed to morph as a white vapor twisted inside.

This only left the last gem at the very top, a large amethyst. Everyone stared in confusion as it remained unlit and the portal dormant. Suddenly they heard a deep, dark laughter behind them. They turned to see a black dragon. Spyro's eyes widened.

To be continued… sucks, don't it?


	27. Dark revalations

A few dragons had returned from the chevrons already, including those who never left, the dragons at the super portal were Spyro, James, Selena, Kenji, Ryan and Jacy. Perrin had left to help with a child who had broken a leg. Just a few minutes ago Kenji had been telling them all about his battle with the illusion that had taken the form of his dark side, a nobody called Ixnek.

The eight beams struck the portal and their corresponding gem had reacted, but nothing happened, Spyro noticed a large amethyst on the portal that was unlit. And they all turned after hearing a laugh behind them.

Spyro's eyes widened in shock as he stared at the dragon before him. His entire body was flat black, not a single scale, horn or plate on him was any color but black, it seemed so dark that it absorbed light around him, giving him an aura of darkness. Or maybe it was just that he had a black aura. But what shocked Spyro the most was what the dragon looked like.

It looked exactly like him, with the exception of having all of its tail of course. Spyro regained his composure and asked "Who are you?"

The dragon looked at Spyro with eyes that glowed white, the only part of him not black, and replied with a multi toned voice. "Who are you?"

"I'm Spyro."

The black dragon coked its head. "I'm Spyro."

"Dude." Kenji said, earning him an unreadable stare from the black dragon. "Quit copying him and answer already."

There was a pressure all of a sudden, like the air was thicker and the black dragon vanished. He reappeared a moment later, towering on two legs above Kenji, his claw cloaked in flames, it swung with the intention of separating Kenjis head from his body.

There was a gale of wind and the dragon was shoved just out of range, it's flaming claws rending the air inches in front of Kenji who calmly said "Aeroga." Then there was a flash and his keyblade, Keberdu was in his hand. "I wouldn't try that again."

"Kenji stop." Spyro said, causing us all to look at him. "I want him to answer my questions." He turned to the black dragon. "Why do you and I look so similar?"

The black dragons claws extinguished and he turned to face Spyro. "Why do you and I look so similar?"

Spyro growled, to which the black dragon growled in return. "Enough!" Spyro roared. He turned to the others. "He's mine." Then he leapt at the black dragon, yellow and white flames erupting from his mouth.

The black dragon smiled cruelly and took the attack; his body was swallowed by the inferno. Spyro cut the blaze and watched as the flames gathered into a raging ball that consumed the dragon. He smiled, knowing that no one could survive.

Then the orb seemed to shrink, intensifying as it became smaller, eventually it became so small it no longer covered the black dragon, who they could see was completely unharmed. The orb continued to shrink until it was hovering in front or the black dragon, so small they couldn't see it, just its white glow.

The dragon smile at Spyro. "Die." Then the concentrated inferno shot at Spyro, who dodged just in time, the attack streaked straight through a boulder that was behind Spyro, leaving a tiny glowing point on the front and back. Suddenly the entire boulder went off like a bomb, catching Spyro off guard, the shockwave throwing him to the ground.

The black dragon jerked his head back and they could see the point of light return, heading towards Spyro again.

James summoned a disk of shadow that intercepted the attack, it hit the disk, which absorbed much, but not all of the attack, what was left passed through the disk and hit Spyro, his friends looked on with anger burning in their hearts as Spyro screamed.

That does it. Selena said. She looked at James, who nodded. He had told her about something from another world that while not magic, was just as effective in certain cases. He tossed her a small pendant, which he now wore at all times. It had half of some kind of seal on the back She grabbed it and her own pendant which bore the other half of the seal and pressed them together, they locked and blue lightning flashed from the seal. The lead pendants then began to morph as the alchemy took place, transforming into a glowing orb that she enveloped in a bubble shield to keep the radiation at bay.

James had explained that the humans had a technology involving radioactive materials that produced a massive amount of energy, the by product of the materials losing all radioactivity was the creation of lead, Selena had transmuted the lead, infusing it with enough energy to convert it into uranium. Selena threw the deadly metal at the black dragon, then covered them both with a shield as James shot a small beam of light, which struck the uranium, starting the chain reaction. He then reinforced Selenas shield with shadow and Kenji added a barrier spell on top of that.

Even through these barriers, the light and heat were intense as the explosion decimated anything inside.

James's shadows absorbed any residual radiation as the barriers were lifted. The area was a perfect sphere bowled out of the earth, the surface completely molten. They stared in wonder. Perrin looked at her paws. To think that this new power, alchemy was this powerful. Honestly it scared her. She was glad James had the foresight to split the transmutation circle onto two keys otherwise it would have been too easy to accidentally do something horrible. And after seeing the devastation wrought by this power she wanted to destroy the others they had made, there's a difference between enough power and too much.

They heard laughing behind them. They all wheeled around to see the black dragon, who said "Honestly, you throw much too slow."

"So you can talk." Kenji said.

The black dragon cocked an eyeridge. "Of course."

"So what's your name?" Jacy asked.

"That I cannot ell you, otherwise you'd tell Spyro."

"Why don't you want dad knowing?" James asked.

"It is something he must learn himself"

"You look like Dark Spyro." Ryan said

"I would tell you that you were wrong, even if you are correct, so why ask?"

"And besides." Kenji said to Ryan, "Dark Spyro's belly and wings are bone colored, not to mention the whole smoke and lightning thing."

They heard groaning behind them and as they rushed to Spyro's side, they heard te black dragon say "He'll learn what I have to teach or die trying."

They got to Spyro's side as he was getting up, he had a large burn that bled on his face, but other than that was unharmed. Selena went to heal the wound, but Spyro shook his head.

"No time, I've got to finish this now."

"But that'll scar." Selena said. Spyro shrugged.

"Spyro." Ryan said, "He said he has something t teach you, but didn't say what."

Spyro stepped forward. "Well? Are you going to teach me or kill me?"

The black dragon said nothing.

"Tell me!" Spyro yelled.

"Tell me." The black dragon said.

Spyro growled and shot a bolt of lightning, which seemed to curve up and strike the dragons horns, it then arced from one to another before firing back at Spyro, but infused with dark energy. Before anyone even realized it was coming back it had struck Spyro, throwing him off his feet and to the ground. The black dragon just sighed.

As Spyro got back up the others formed a barrier between the two should the black dragon attack again. Spyro pushed through them, and ignored their objections.

"Well, aren't you going to attack yourself, or just throw what I have back at me?"

The black dragon said nothing.

Spyro growled. "No answer? Well try throwing this back! Spyro's eyes glowed white and a beam of convexity shot out, the purple beam was two meters off the ground but destroyed the ground underneath from the sheer force.

The black dragon smiled as the beam came to him. He opened his mouth as the beam struck, it narrowed and was absorbed into his mouth.

As the glare of the convexity cleared, they could see the black dragon smiling, Spyro's eyes widened.

"Convexity…" the black dragon said, his mouth glowing with a purple light. "A powerful force unrivaled by anything, it penetrates all barriers and destroys all matter, converting physical objects to heat and light, erasing it's presence from existence." He looked at Spyro. "Do you still not know?"

Spyro glared "I know you now. You killed Gaul." Everyone stared at him.

"I thought you killed him." Kenji said. Then it dawned on him. He turned back. "So, you are Dark Spyro."

Dark Spyro bowed. "Guilty as charged. I'm not Spyro's dark side, I'm a completely different entity born at the moment he entered the Convexity portal to stop Cynder from bringing Malefor back. At the present, neither Spyro nor myself can exist without the other, his life force is split between the two of us."

"Then why try and kill me?" Spyro asked.

"So the remaining life force will be transferred to me so I can truly live. Convexity had unexplainable properties, one of which can manipulate souls, which you're aware of Spyro."

Spyro nodded. "That fury back in Convexity that freed Cynder from the darkness."

Dark Spyro smiled. Prepare to witness your last moments of life, convexity destroys all barriers and with my power over it, it will be unavoidable, give in to despair and allow me to assimilate your soul into mine."

Dark Spyro opened his mouth and the absorbed convexity shot out, tainted by darkness. Spyro didn't move, it would be pointless; he just stared at his doom.

Suddenly he saw a silhouette in the blast, Kenji had moved in the way, he heard the others screaming over the roar of convexity.

There was a flash of pure light and the roar of convexity was replaced by an equally loud, but deeper rumble. The light flared and winked out. Spyro could see Kenji, his keyblade extended, pointing at Dark Spyro, who looked as shocked as glowing eyes can express.

"Wh- what did you do?" Spyro stammered. The he noticed Kenjis keyblade was shaped differently, it was white.

"I used the chain I took from the doppelganger during my fight, Oathkeeper. It's been imbued with a power called Concavity. It seems to be the polar opposite of convexity, I couldn't let you die, no way. So I thought it was worth a try. He smiled much like another keyblade bearer. "Looks like it worked eh?"

He then took the chain off the end of the blade, it reverted to a very normal looking key shape, except that it was much larger of course, and handed the chain to Spyro. "Here, the purple dragon can use every element, this ought to boost the natural process of learning concavity, if it's an element at all. If not, you'll at least be able to use it whenever you hold that."

Spyro nodded. "Thanks." He turned to Dark Spyro, who stood there, eyes still showing shock, but not fear.

"Earlier Kenji," Spyro said. "You told us that Concavity purges all evil from it's target without inflicting physical damage. In that case this may do quite a bit to a being of darkness."

The chain in his paw glowed and he opened his mouth, the light was so intense tat they couldn't see anything, just hear the rumble and an odd laughter."

As the light faded, Dark Spyro stood there still.

Spyro stared in shock. "How did it not affect you?"

"Simple, I lied about wanting to assimilate you, I knew the two legged dragon would use that power and give it to you. I merely started the chain of events that granted you this power and stripped it from Kenji."

"Why didn't you ant me to have it?" Kenji asked.

"And how did you know what would happen?" James asked.

Dark Spyro sighed. "To many questions… I didn't want you having concavity Kenji, simply because it's power is too much for all but a few dragons, if you noticed, you're attack was nothing compared to when Spyro used it, had you tried to use it's full potential, it would have rebounded and destroyed you. And as for how I knew? I overheard you talking about it and knew it was the logical thing to do to use concavity. Any more questions?"

"Where did you come from?" Spyro asked.

"I've existed inside you ever since you entered Convexity all those years ago, when you became to emotionally unstable to fight I took over to ensure our survival.

"What about those times my life wasn't in danger but you came out anyway? Or when my life was in danger, but you didn't show?"

"There are times when you're emotions would make you do incredibly stupid things, such as go back into the belt of fire after Ignitus or kill Valcor because of his fathers identity. Your emotions influenced how I acted, but I kept you from doing those things. And as for when you could have died, but I didn't show up, did you die?"

Spyro stared at him. "…No."

"Then you didn't need my help, did you?"

"I'd still have my tail if you had helped before!"

Dark Spyro shrugged. "After you overreacted about Valcor and I intervened, I couldn't manifest for sometime. I takes huge amounts of energy to completely morph your body and replace our conciseness', and even then I'm only partially successful, as Kenji said, the change isn't 100%, I still had some of your coloring, and your emotions still influence my actions. When I force myself out, I lose a great amount of power that could otherwise be used to ensure your survival."

"Is this what you wanted to teach me?" Spyro asked.

"Partially. Aside form my intentions earlier, I haven't distorted anything I've said, after using concavity on me, you know I'm not here for evil purposes, so I ask you again. "Who are you Spyro?"

James walked up to Spyro. "Dad, times wasting."

"I know, but the portal doesn't work, so until it does we've got time." He thought a minute before looking at Dark Spyro. "Everything you've said, it's all a large puzzle." Dark Spyro nodded.

Spyro thought for another minute, and then looked back to Dark Spyro, who nodded again.

"Thank you." Spyro said, "For all the times you've helped." A surge of purple lightning shot up through Spyros crests to his head, his eyes flashed purple and a beam of convexity shot out his mouth. The roar and light swallowed Dark Spyro. As the light faded, the place Dark Spyro had been was a smoldering patch of bare earth, Dark Spyro was gone.

"Why'd you do that?" Selena yelled. "We just find out your evil side wasn't evil at all, and you kill him!"

Spyro turned to her. "It's what he wanted. The whole reason he used every ounce of power just to manifest here. Did you notice he never once attacked me, only redirected my own attacks?"

Selena nodded.

"He was too weak to attack himself. He also said one of convexities powers is to manipulate souls. That and whenever he came out in the past, he could never fight with his full strength, I didn't kill him, but at the same time he no longer exists. I've assimilated his soul and power, along with his knowledge of convexity.

Before anyone could stop him, he turned and fired a beam of convexity at the portal itself. Ten minutes ago, the portal would have been reduced to rubble, Now with his newfound power over convexity, it did no damage to the portal, but when the beam stopped, the could see that the amethyst in the center of the arch was lit up.

He turned to the rest. "Convexity activates the portal." Just then there was a flash and the portal lit up, a field of white that faded to show the destination.

They all looked at Ôumí Jiâs realm, anti-space.

It was an endless expanse of white, with a large stone castle floating in the nothing.

They prepared to go through when James stooped them. "Wait! I'll be right back!"

There was a whistle sound as he teleported. A minute later he reappeared, Perrins paw on his.

"Now we can go." The others nodded and walked to the portal. Spyro however stayed where he was.

"Sorry, but I'll need to stay behind to reactivate the portal once you're ready to return. The portal will stay locked on anti-space, it'll just need to be activated again. Good luck."

James went back and hugged him. "Spyro… dad, I'm glad I could learn about who I really am."

Spyro smiled. "Me too, looks like purple dragon or not, a requirement for saving the world seems to be a tail."

"James chuckled and went back to Perrin, as a group James, Perrin, Kenji, Ryan, Jacy and Selena walked through. The portal flashed and closed, leaving an empty arch.


	28. Anti Space

(James POV)

The super portal was unlike anything I've ever felt before. Other portals have a horrible feeling of limbo to them, but the super portal felt as if the energies of the universe were surging through your body. It felt incredible, but in an overwhelming way, I felt as if I would explode from the sheer force of it all, inside it was like a purple void, and unlike the other portals, we had to fly to get anywhere, thankfully it was a straight path.

I looked to my left, Beside me flew Perrin, my mate, my wife. Beyond her flew Kenji, though we shared no blood, as a human he was my cousin, I looked at him as a friend, not family. And I couldn't have a closer friend than him.

To my right flew Ryan, a friend I never knew in person before we came to the dragon realms. He was as honest, trustworthy and caring as they come, with a poetic side to boot.

Beyond him was Selena. My sister, Spyro's daughter and eldest child. A strong spellcaster. She was smart and always seemed to know the best course of action. Beyond her was Jacy, again while we shared no real blood, she was a sister to me. Me and her could sure get into a scrap, but in the end we had each others backs.

I smiled and looked forward at the white point that drew closer. As far as flying toward your destiny, I couldn't think of a better group of friends to be with.

The white point grew to fill our vision, then suddenly we left the purple of the portal behind us, along with the maddening energy within. We looked behind us to see Spyro, on the other side of the portal before it closed. We turned back and all yelled in surprise.

"You-you're all different!" I stammered. I then looked myself over, it seemed the portal had changed something about all of us. My scales had become a steely blue color. My markings remained black. I now had white crystalline growths on my shoulders.

Jacy had become more streamlined, with two horns that swept back before straightening out, her frills had disappeared.

Ryans wing spikes had grown sharper, more dangerous, his overall body was also more muscular, but not overly so. He now had small stone-like growths on his shoulders, much like Terrador and Kwaik. The ridges of spike on the underside of his horns had moved to the top, sharpening into blades. He also now had twin ridges of these small blades running parallel down his back.

Perrin had become slimmer, her scales less armor-like, her blades were smaller, but more numerous. Her bottom horns had shrunk somewhat and reversed their curve, pointing up along with the top two. Most surprising was that she now had a mane of auburn fur that ran from head to tail, the fur along her neck was the longest, giving the appearance of red hair.

Selena had changed a lot, her body was now the same body type as Cynder, her wing spikes had grown and tripled, her tail now had a fin on the top and bottom, her horns had also become less bull like and now went back in a branch pattern, much like an eastern dragon. On her body, shoulders and back she now bore the same markings as her mother in a pink darker than the rest of her body.

But Kenjis transformation was the most drastic. His large frill that resembled hair had become actual hair, the same dark green as before. His wings had migrated from his wrists to his back giving him a much larger appearance. His claws had also grown slightly longer, measuring three inches in length.

After the initial shock wore off, we turned to each other, commenting on our new appearance. I was with Perrin. "Well, this is new, eh?"

She nodded. "I don't know much about dragon standards, but the color suits you."

I smiled. "Thanks. I like the fur."

"Really? What about it?"

"The color matches your scales, and the way it runs down your spine gives me chills."

Perrin gave me an odd look. "You like fur now?"

I shrugged. "I guess after being a dragon for so long I'm starting to see females by a dragons standard. I dunno, all I know is you look beautiful."

Beside us, Ryan was practically serenading Selena. She was blushing madly, clearly enjoying it.

"Selena my lunar beauty, your radiance could capture the light of a thousand suns and-"

"Hey Shakespeare," Jacy interrupted. "Get a room." This earned her a glare from Ryan, which turned to a grin as Kenji slugged her in the shoulder. "Oww!"

"Dang Jacy, just 'cause you're as poetic as a six month old gallon of milk doesn't mean you need to insult others for it."

Jacy mumbled something about being sorry, and I interjected. "Sorry to interrupt, but we did come here for a reason."

The others nodded, and we looked out at our surroundings.

Anti space was exactly that. It was a white void dotted with black stars. It looked as if we were floating in space that was color-inverted, we could see black galaxies and blue/purple nebulae. Dominating the area was a massive white hole, which spewed out matter, where a black hole sucks it in. We took of towards it, to my right I heard a scream. Whipping my head around, I saw Kenji far above us, he slowly glided back down, clearly shaken.

"Oh man… By habit I use my wind element to push air under my wings… these new wings, they're much stronger, and so is my element… This is gonna take some getting used to." I smiled, remembering my first time in the air. I got a broken leg. But something puzzled me, Kenji's elements were stronger?

"Kenji." I said, "Use your fire element."

He shrugged and punched, instead of a fireball like he planned, a great firestorm erupted from his palm. He whistled. "Man, whatever was in that portal was good stuff."

We each tried our elements, while not any stronger, Jacy was able to affect objects much farther off. Perrin and Selena didn't seem to have any effects, positive or negative. Ryan had the ability to take his seeds and grow plants from pure energy, they were formed of light and the plants that used seeds for different purposes never seemed to run out. Myself my elements seemed to be easier to control and used much less energy than before. I could also feel my other abilities, dragon time and certain spells bubbling on the surface, like they would be incredibly easy to use.

Once we had become accustomed to our bodies a bit, we resumed our journey to the white hole. We flew fast and soon were passing random flaoting debris spewed out of the white hole.

I heard Kenji gas behind me and I turned to see what it was, what we found shocked me.

It was a giant hourglass, filled with a blue sand that seemed to flow like liquid as it tumbled about. "Is that…" Ryan started.

"From the temple of time…" I finished.

"What?" Perrin asked.

I turned to her. "That is from the realm where my grandfather, Ignitus, also known as Chronicler lived. His realm was destroyed by Ôumí Jiâ and him along with it. There must always be a Chronicler, He acts as a guardian of time itself, without him all sorts of things could happen."

And then suddenly it hit me. "Guys! I think I've figured it out! That white hole, it's spewing out everything that's destroyed by Ôumí Jiâ, he wants to destroy everything, so that means everything in our universe, and every universe will end up here."

"And, What's he doing this for?" Jacy asked.

"I haven't gotten that far." I said. I don't know enough about the guy to know why he does what he does.

Then Ryan pointed the way we came. "How's that for an answer?" We turned and it took me a while to figure out what I was staring at.

Much to far away to fly in a year, was an absolutely massive orb, everything that was spewed out of the white hoe seemed attracted to this thing, which glowed with intense heat from a million impacts.

"No way…" I said. When the others looked at me, I said "I'm no astronomer, but I know everything has a gravity field, the bigger the object, the bigger the pull, I also know that two things hitting at high speed makes heat, lots of it. And in this place where everything is reverse, I think the gravity field of that orb might eventually get stronger than the objects that make it up."

"Ok Einstein." Perrin said sarcastically. "What does that mean?"

Ryan interrupted "It means that its gravity will crush itself down to a point, growing denser and harder, compressed and squeezed objects also make heat, imagine if the entire universe were squeezed into a space the size of a marble."

"That'd be a lot of energy." Selena said.

I nodded. "Now imagine every universe, essentially hundreds of millions all compressed into a space the size of a marble."

"Wait." Jacy said. "This sounds like a Big Bang."

"Exactly." Ryan said. "He wants to create a new universe."

"Most likely he'll give life a head start and become a god-figure." I said.

"He wants to be god?" Perrin said in disbelief.

"That's my guess." I said. "I could be wrong though, just a guess."

"Well, either way," Selena said. "We've got a few hours left before Ignitus' deadline."

We nodded and within a few minutes could see the huge castle that was in the portal. Being the only logical place for a dragon to live in a place like this we headed there. It was then that we noticed a huge rock barreling straight at us. Before it reached us though, a small piece; and I say small in comparison, piece broke off and seemed to unfold.

Kenji was the first to curse. I didn't know what the problem was, but of course he had seen a destroyer before. As it drew closer and I could see the characteristic plant life and molten bottom I stared in disbelief. "No way, another? Where do these keep coming from?"

"From that rock, apparently." Jacy said. I shot her a look.

"Jacy this isn't the time, this thing is the Destroyer, an indestructible beast whose only purpose is to destroy the world…"

True to my word, the destroyer flapped its way towards us. And yes I said flapped. It was shaped entirely differently from the first two we'd seen. This destroyer was much smaller, it's "head" was made up of two fat antennae, its tail fanned out like a lobster, it had two legs underneath, one in front of the other. Its bottom was molten while the top was covered in grass with what looked like the mast of a ship jutting out on it's back were archways and a wooden bridge that seemed to keep it aloft as it flapped the bridge like wings.

The destroyer was about twice the size of a golem, and it opened its mouth, a jet of fire spewing out. I smiled as I used my shadow powers. A black disk came and swallowed the fire, a second disk appeared behind the beast, spewing the fire back at it

"Lemme take this." Jacy said. Her eyes glowed with her element and we all watched as the destroyer stopped and began to crumble, suddenly there were a series of explosions that ripped the beast apart.

We looked at Jacy, who smirked. "I remember something like this in that game of James', destroy all its crystals and it dies, right?"

Kenji laughed. "Wow, good thinking! I just wish I could have tried out my new powers on it."

Perrin was staring at the rock, "Uh… Kenji, you might get your chance sooner than you think, look!"

My eyes widened. The entire rock had started to split. When it was finished there were eight destroyers. They all floated towards us, a massive scorpion with a temple and forest on it's back, a whale with a house on it's back, One looked just like a golem, but huge. Another was a huge leech shape. Another was a huge four-legged creature with an equally massive building sitting atop of it like a massive helm. Another was a clone to the one that attacked during Malefors time. Another one was no larger than a golem and bore a tree on its back, and the last was simply a giant creature head.

"Holy…" I said. "That's a lot of destroyers, it's like a nest.

Kenji nodded, "Maybe this is where destroyers come from." I shrugged.

"Well," Ryan said. "They won't be around long enough to matter; I've got the small one!" He said as he took off, a glowing flower of light sprouting from his shoulder, shooting a spray of deadly barbs that now had much more force than a normal plant.

I turned to Perrin, who nodded; together we took the largest one, the scorpion, I opened my mouth and shot a blast of light, the orb had a higher concentration of energy, and exploded with massive force, tearing open a wound that bled magma. Perrin flew down and before I could stop her, breathed her element, healing on it. But as I watched, the wound tried to heal, but seemed unable to. She expertly dodged a tail strike and went for a second pass, this time her breath seemed to corrode the stone, revealing a dark crystal.

She flew back to my level. "I think, my element can both heal and decompose."

I smiled and nodded. "That could be useful, just don't do it when we kiss!"

She laughed. "Care to do the honors?" I nodded and gathered a large amount of light, then surrounded it in a sphere of shadow, then spat it out. The light bomb hit and in a flare ripped through the destroyers frame, revealing another crystal inside the temple. Me and Perrin flew down, hunting for crystals, always careful to stay at a safe distance.

Kenji had taken on the destroyer that was shaped like the first one, from the games. He raised a hand and a orb spiraling wind gathered. He then flew at the beast's mouth. It tried in vain to close it off, but Kenji thrust the orb forward shouting "RASENGAN!"

The effect was a blast of wind that obliterated the destroyers mouth, he then flew down the throat, summoning his keyblade. He closed his eyes and could feel an awakening inside the blade. The blade transformed into a blue double blade. As he entered the magma chamber in the heart of the beast he saw its crystal heart. He whispered "Blizzaja" and swung the keyblade.

Selena had attacked the giant head. Not the brightest move, it seemed immune to her spells and was fast. As she was trying to charge a spell, it rushed forward and took her in its mouth.

At first Selena panicked, then she realized this could help. She closed her eyes and pictured her old mentor, Sensei. _**I think this is desperate enough**_ she thought as she tapped into not her energy, but all the energy surrounding her. She had realized when the fight began that her transformation had made casting spells much easier.

Now with her paws above her head, an orb of dark energy quickly grew as she sapped it from the dark crystals inside the destroyer. She smiled, James had told her of a similar power in another land, and she liked the name. So when it was large enough, she threw the Spirit bomb down the creatures throat.

There was a rumbling and a huge explosion that ripped the beast apart. When it was over she was hovering amidst a field of harmless rocks. She turned to see how the others were doing.

Jacy had her claws busy with the other four destroyers, she was attacking one, but then before she could crush the crystal with her powers, through the three would gang up on her. It was getting annoying.

But just then there was a beam of blue light crackling with lightning that ripped through the four-legged destroyer, there was an audible sound of crystal shattering and the beast stopped moving, dead.

She turned to see Selena, paws glowing blue. She raised them and a wall of light separated the other two from Jacy, so she could focus on the whale. Within a few minutes she had obliterated all but one crystal on the beast. She smiled and took pleasure in slowly cracking the last one, the destroyers death screams were cut off as its heart finally gave and shattered under the force of Jacys mind.

She turned to the other two, the shield was dropped, and as the leech destroyer got ahead of the other, the shield went back up. Jacy smiled, for the harbinger of the end, these things were sure easy to kill. Her smile dropped as she used her element and the leech vanished, seeming to dig into reality itself and vanish underneath.

Kenji actually laughed as his spell struck, the heart froze instantly, and the flowing magma in the chamber rose, touching it, the rapid rise in temperature from several hundred below to several thousand caused that one part of the crystal to expand faster than the others, and it fell apart. He could feel that the destroyer had stopped moving, and now the magma was going crazy. It was time to leave. He turned and flew as fast as he dared though the twisting tunnels.

Perrin and I had destroyed a lot of crystals. Eventually we couldn't find anymore, after avoiding numerous thrusts from the creatures massive sting, I felt a draining on the last attack. It turned to Perrin, who said "Wanna bet the last one is its sting?"

I faced the tail and shot a beam of light, it seemed to be unable to contain tall the energy within and rippled, arcing lightning as it tore through the air, in a left to right motion, the beam separated the tail from the body, which started to fall apart. Perrin flew up and as the tail passed mere inches from her she swung her tail around, the blade cleaving through the stone and shattering the crystal within.

Ryan had long ago destroyed his destroyer. _** Kinda Ironic**_ he thought as he said that to himself. Having a tree on its back, he just made it grow until it's roots ripped apart the crystal heart within. He saw Selena helping Jacy and decided to Join them, the others seemed to have the situation under control. As he got there, Selena said "She's fighting two at once, one of which can disappear at will.

Ryan nodded. Sure enough the leech reappeared, only to vanish as Jacys powers activated. Rya flew down to Jacys' level and as the destroyer reappeared a dozen vines grew with lightning speed from Ryans bag and wrapped their glowing forms over the tear the worm had just made, preventing it from leaving again. He turned to Jacy. "There you go."

Jacy said nothing, but her eyes glowed and the creatures crystal heart shattered. As the dead destroyer drifted away They prepared t fight the last one when suddenly it exploded in a gold flash.

I was watching Jacy fight with Ryan, Perrin beside me when suddenly a gold orb flew out of nowhere and annihilated the last destroyer. All of us looked around for the source and when I found it my heart froze.

It was him, Ôumí Jiâ.


	29. The danger line

I was watching Jacy fight alongside Ryan, Perrin beside me when suddenly a gold orb flew out of nowhere and annihilated the last destroyer. All of us looked around for the source and when I found it my heart froze.

It was him, Ôumí Jiâ.

He was; in a word, massive. A single scale on his body was the size of a fully grown human, and his body was long, serpentine, he had four spindly legs on the upper and lower portions of his body, each with five claws, his bright golden body almost seemed to glow, his wings were equally massive, and unlike most dragons, had black feathers. His horns seemed almost like branches. All in all, he looked like a fusion of the Chinese dragons and the Central American god, Quetzacoatl.

He looked down at all of us, and he had to look a very long ways down, and spoke with a voice that passed through our minds _**What brings insects such as yourselves to my realm?**_

We all stared at Ôumí Jiâ, completely speechless. He seemed to laugh without moving his mouth, and then shrunk right before our eyes. Soon he was only slightly larger than two adult dragons. _** Was it my size that intimidated you so? There, now we may speak.**_

I shook myself free of the shock and asked the first thing that popped into my head.

"Why did you destroy your own golem?"

_**To put it quite simply, I didn't want your energy depleted anymore than it was.**_

"What do you mean?" Kenji asked.

_**You don't understand? Why does a cat toy with the mouse before ripping it apart? For amusement. Your attempts at fighting back will amuse me.**_

I could feel a dark energy behind me; Jacy was growing so angry her inner darkness was coming out.

Ôumí Jiâ turned to her. _**Ah! My servant! How are you since you betrayed me?**_

"Betray?" Jacy spat. "There was no loyalty to betray! You took my free will, the second I was given the choice I left! And now you'll regret ever giving me power!"

There was a flash of darkness and Jacy had transformed into her wyvern form. Her scales now dark blue, and her front legs gone, her wings growing instead. This time though, she was on fire, a black flame covered her body, the yellow glow of her eyes visible through the haze.

She opened her mouth and there was another black flash and a sound like an explosion in reverse came from Ôumí Jiâ. I watched as an inside-out fireball collapsed onto him. From the power I felt, I could tell it would completely obliterate anything inside the implosion.

However, Ôumí Jiâ simply walked through the flames, like it was a wall of fog.

_**I see.**_ Ôumí Jiâ said _**You've learned how to control your abilities without my aide. **_

Too bad they just aren't enough. Though I'll give you credit, I actually felt something, though it might have been the breeze.

I quickly entered Jacys mind. _**Jacy, calm down. Your anger is just, but you can't harm him yet, so for now you're only wasting your strength.**_

Jacy nodded and returned to her bronze form. Perrin looked at me and mouthed a word to me. I understood and took to the air, Ôumí Jiâ followed me with a lazy look. I smiled and teleported directly in front of him, covering my face with my eyes and closing my eyes, yelling the word Perrin had suggested.

"Solar Flare!"

As I released the energy, there was a light unlike anything I'd ever experienced before, I could sense it, but the only one who felt the effects was Ôumí Jiâ. As he screamed in agony, We all converged on him. I charged a light shot and fired it point black, Kenji had released Keyberdu's true form and attacked, Perrin breathed her corrosive breath, Selena fired twin aura beams from her front paws, Jacy summoned her power to crush his head and Ryan instantly grew a glowing forest of bamboo underneath him.

Each of these attacks alone had lethal power, even if the blow glanced you. Yet when we had regrouped, Ôumí Jiâ simply floated from the smoke.

_**Was that really your best? **_Oumi Jiâ asked_** Oh well, I had hoped to keep the game going a bit longer, but I can see now it wouldn't be any fun.**_

In front of him, light coalesced into a large golden orb that he shot at us. I smiled as I used dragon time. As the orb slowed to a traceable pace Selena, who I had excluded from the effects of dragon time rushed forward and trapped the orb in a current of magic. AS I stopped dragon time, the orb whipped around Selenas body and flew back at Ôumí Jiâ, there was another explosion and Ôumí Jiâ was sent flying by his own blast.

In a flash Kenji was off, flying so fast I couldn't track him with my eyes, suddenly he reappeared behind Ôumí Jiâ, his keyblade glowing with thunder. He swung it, sending Ôumí Jiâ back to the ground. Ryan was already above Ôumí Jiâ, glowing flowers burrowing their roots under his scales, a symbiotic bond. The flowers shot a burst of hundreds of glowing thorns, each one longer than the actual plant.

As he fell towards me, Jacy used her power to accelerate his fall, so he was a blur as he passed me. AS he did though, my tail blade was sheathed in light energy, forming a very long blade that struck him with incredible force. Naturally though, I felt a surge of mind blowing pain as my tail snapped back from hitting an object moving that fast. Perrin flew to my side and began healing the shattered bones.

Through the pain, which was quickly fading, I saw Ôumí Jiâ slowing his fall and eventually stop. As he righted himself and looked up at us he growled and flew back at us with incredible speed. Before he could hit anyone though, Perrin had intercepted, her strength matching his. She dove under him at the last second, grabbing his horns and back flipping, sending him right back down with his own momentum.

This time, Kenji had prepped another spell, but I held him off. "At this range, he would have time to dodge it, wait." Kenji nodded and we flew to close the gap.

Ôumí Jiâ hovered there, waiting. As we approached, he sprung his trap, a huge shockwave left his body, vaporizing the illusions Selena had sent in our stead.

I nodded from above; Ôumí Jiâ was indeed powerful, even his defensive moves were deadly. So we waited for him to return to our level, which he then did.

_**You insects…**_ He growled. _** You don't know your place. What chance does a worm have of killing a god? Your attempts are similarly futile.**_

"Do you think so?" Ryan asked. "Why don't you return to your full size and show us?"

I looked at Ryan like he was crazy, and then back to Ôumí Jiâ as he said _**You wish this fight to end so soon? Very well, I shall oblige.**_ I waited in grim anticipation for his transformation, but it never came.

After a few seconds, He glared at Ryan. _**What did you do!**_

"Simple" Ryan said "I sealed your chakras."

-flashback-

In a flash Kenji was off, flying so fast I couldn't track him with my eyes, suddenly he reappeared behind Ôumí Jiâ, his keyblade glowing with thunder. He swung it, sending Ôumí Jiâ back to the ground. Ryan was already above Ôumí Jiâ, glowing flowers burrowing their roots under his scales, a symbiotic bond. The flowers shot a burst of hundreds of glowing thorns, each one longer than the actual plant.

As the needles rained down, if you were to slow everything, you'd see seven needles strike his body at precise places along the spine and head. The needles of light seemed to melt into his scales and vanish without leaving a wound.

-end of flashback-

"Selena taught me about chakras. I sealed them, and since you can't send energy throughout your body, most of your power useless to you." Ryan finished.

"And that's not all." Kenji said. "I hit you with a spell a while ago, and now I drop it." He snapped his fingers and there was a flash of red from Ôumí Jiâ. At first I thought it was the spell, but then I realized it was blood. Kenji had opened all the wounds we delivered at once.

The effect staggered Ôumí Jiâ. The gashes from Kenji and my strokes, as well as the small, deep wounds from Ryans needles had sprayed blood, then slowed to a steady trickle.

But through all this Ôumí Jiâ laughed.

"What's to laugh about?" I asked. He smiled and turned to me, _** You cannot kill me.**_

"Wanna bet?" Jacy asked. "Their powers not the only ones that increased!" and suddenly Ôumí Jiâ seemed to grow, but in a way that he looked bloated, suddenly the force Jacy was exerting on the inside of his body increased and he literally exploded.

I turned to Jacy in disbelief. "Dang… with that power, you could beat just about anyone…" Jacy smiled. "That monster deserved it."

And then we heard him laughing._** I told you! Your attempts at my life are laughable! What you killed was a look alike, and its power pales in comparison to my true strength. Now, prepare to face despair in the eye as I smite you, and then go on to obliterate everything!**_

I felt a feeling unlike anything I'd felt before. It was like the air had grown denser, the power being emitted from the floating castle far above us compressed the air to such an extent that it was nearly impossible to breathe. I knew if I were in my human form, I would die just from being in this area. Fortunely my dragon form has larger lungs.

Then he came from the castle, a shadow, almost intangible. It definitely had the same form as the dragon we just fought, but every color on his body was dark almost to the point of being black. He was also transparent, like a dark ghost, the only thing solid were his golden eyes, which blazed with the fury of untold eons.

"Right." Kenji said. He raised his keyblade and uttered a single word that made me double take, I had never dared to think he could pull off such a spell.

He closed his eyes and whispered "Ultima."

I watched in awe as light seemed to form from nothing and spiral down the blade to the tip, morphing to a bloody color as it did so. It formed a small orb which shrunk to a point, then erupted outward in a massive beam, easily thirty feet wide. The crimson, black, white and yellow beam shot at Ôumí Jiâ, everyone was blown away from Kenji from the sheer force of the blast, which thundered so loud I couldn't make out what it sounded like, it was just pure noise, like when a nuclear bomb explodes, the cameras can't capture the sound, and it only registers as pure bass.

As the beam streaked toward Ôumí Jiâ, he lifted a claw and simply brushed aside the attack, which was deflected into the castle, as the beam hit there was a flash, which then imploded, leaving nothing of the castle, not even floating dust. The shockwave hit us a moment later, blowing us several hundred feet before we could right ourselves.

After we had regrouped, Kenji was steaming. "How? I put every ounce of power I had into that move! He- he brushed it aside like it was nothing!"

Jacy's head was down. "To him, it really is nothing. I remember serving him, when a servant didn't please him, he could kill them by blinking."

"What are we going to do?" Selena asked.

"I don't… I don't know." I said, looking up at Ôumí Jiâ, who hovered there leering at us, knowing there was nothing we could do. And suddenly I knew with grim certainly what must be done.

I looked at all of them. "Guys, I'm sorry, but it's time to go."

"What?" Ryan asked. "This is the reason we're here, and now you want to run?"

"Yeah." Perrin said. "Besides, there's nowhere we can run!"

"I shook my head. "No, it's time for you to go." Then I used my powers and opened a portal behind them. A portal to the distant past, when humans still existed. Then I used a pulse of light to blow Kenji, Ryan, Jacy, Selena and Ryan through the one way portal before they could say a word.

I turned to Perrin. "I love you; say hi to Laura for me."

"What are you planning?" Perrin asked, though in her heart she knew, I could tell from her tears.

"I'm doing what I must. Go. Please." Perrin nodded and slowly walked through the portal, taking one last look over her shoulder, and said "I love you too." before vanishing. As the portal closed, I turned back to Ôumí Jiâ. I closed my eyes and whispered "I promise, we'll see each other again someday."

Then I took off, combining every last nano of light and shadow within my body. This attack would work, it had to.

Ôumí jia laughed at my assault and opened his mouth, a golden beam shot out, but my body struck it head on and cut the beam in half, my chaotic energies deflecting it.

Just before I reached him I unleashed my chaos fury, shoving every ounce of power out my body at once. The resulting surge was to much to control and just as I feared, and expected it recoiled. The chaos energy true to its name was too unstable.

From a spectator's viewpoint, there was a blinding flash of darkness that swallowed first James, then Ôumí Jiâ, then expanded, far in the distance, the white hole was eventually swallowed. The shockwave continued into the infinity of anti-space, leaving nothing in its wake. Everything it destroyed was returned to its home universe as pure matter. Of James and Ôumí Jiâ, there were no remains.

Please read and review. Also, take the time to answer my poll, If I make a sequel, who should the main character be?


	30. Epilouge

One year after the events of chapter 29.

There were a group of dragons gather around the super portal, which through some trial and error had finally been tuned to the desired time and place. As the final gem was activated, the portal fizzed and a white orb appeared in center of the arch, which quickly expanded in a disk shape to completely fill the archway.

"Ready?" one dragon said.

"More than ready, we've waited an entire year for this moment." Another said.

"I'm going to right? No bad guys, so I'm stick'n with you man."

"Thanks Sparx." The first dragon said. "It'll be just like old times.

The other dragons wished them farewell, a safe journey, or just smiled as the three walked and/or flew through the portal, which vanished a second later. Just as it did, one of the dragons, Flame said, "Uhh guys? With Spyro gone, who's gonna reopen the portal?"

No one spoke until one of them, Zoulu said "Oops."

It had been a year, and Selena had gotten used to the changes that went along with going through the portal. As a human she was tall, with red hair and pink eyes, which surprised many. Her body was curved, but not overly so, and she was clumsy, mostly because it had taken a long time to get used to two legs and thumbs.

She had been staying with Ryan for the past year, posing as a transfer student from Australia, and often enjoyed imitating the accent. Since no one she knew was in school, no one noticed that she never actually went to school.

Kenji had gone back to his life as if nothing had happened, they returned to the human time the exact moment they left the first time, so Kenji only had to explain what that gun sound was.

Much to his surprise while getting his old body back, he still had the ability to summon his Keyblade, as well as use magic, though only the very simplest spells. Whenever he was alone, he summoned Keyberdu and stared at the iridescent gray-blue blade and remembered all the things that had happened in the future where dragons lived.

Jacy had quickly resumed her old life, to her it was almost like it had never happened. If not for the fact that James was gone, life went on.

Perrin meanwhile had taken a very long time to adjust, It was a bittersweet time for her, on one hand she was once again with her daughter, Laura. On the other hand James was gone. While flying through the portal, she had turned back and watched as he sacrificed himself to stop Ôumí Jiâ. Perrin often stayed outside at night, staring at the night sky, imagining she saw the stars form dragon constellations. Not a moment went by that she missed him, and not a moment passed that she wasn't glad to be back with her daughter.

Laura naturally knew everything about her father, almost four by now she often asked about her father. And though her father was a dragon, she still liked butterflies.

However, this night they lay under the night sky they watched in awe as a rare phenomena occurred, the Aurora were almost never seen in Texas, but this winter night they were faintly visible. As they looked at the shifting swirls of milky light, they seemed to move with a purpose, from all over the sky the aurora converged and formed a small, dim light. This light then began to fall to earth, gently trailing light as it went.

After a few minutes, the light began to change course, heading toward the two. When it finally came to rest on the grass, small tendrils of light seeping from it occasionally Perrin could see it was about twenty feet in width.

"Mommy, what is that?" Laura asked.

"I don't know…" She said, partly to Laura and partly to herself. They watched the light for a moment before it began to change.

The light bent inwards in some places, and stretched outwards in others. Eventually taking the shape of a dragon. The dragon made of light then began to dim somewhat, it's colors becoming visible.

The dragon had black markings covering it's body. Its wings and belly were a dull gray, crystalline growths grew from it's shoulders and from the sides of each belly plate, as well as from above it's eyes, along the backside of it's jaw and one small one from it's chin, all a gold color.

It's swept back horns were black halfway up, then became gold the rest of the way to the tips. It's wings and tail had sword like blades on them, with the edge on the opposite side of what a sword would normally have. Lastly its eyes became visible, blue ringed with gold. Around the dragons neck was a large glowing blue crystal, that was attached by a cord to an almost armor like gold and brown back piece, which had bags attached that were full to bursting with scrolls. And the scales of this dragon were a steel blue color that seemed to reflect light without quite being mirrors.

"Dragon!" Laura cried excitedly. The dragon looked at her and smiled.

"Who… who are you?" Perrin asked.

"You don't recognize me? Even after a year, I couldn't get that last time I saw you out of my head. This aurora finally gave me the chance to bend the rules and appear to you indirectly."

Perrin stared in disbelief and after a moment finally uttered. "James"

He smiled. "I missed you. Both of you." He said, turning back to Laura.

"Oh my God!" Perrin yelled and ran forward to hug James, however she passed right through him, feeling charged for a moment before she hit the dirt.

James backed up and allowed her to stand again. "I apologize, but this isn't my body. I couldn't actually leave, so I did the next best thing and allowed the aurora to take on my form and voice so we could see each other."

"But… I thought you died." Perrin said, gathering Laura in her arms.

James shrugged. "Looks like the universe had different plans. When I… exploded I felt two pulls, one in either direction, I followed one of them and ended up in the Temple of Time. Turns out in Ignitus's absence a new Chronicler was needed. I feel that had I followed the other pull, I would have moved on."

"What's a chronicler?" Laura asked. "Who are you?"

Perrin smiled. "This is James, your daddy."

Laura smiled, "Daddy?"

James smiled back. "Yeah, I wish I could have held you one more time, but I'm not complaining."

"So what is a Chronicler again?" Perrin asked. "I forgot."

"Lesse here…" James started, "A Chronicler records everything that happens in an age, I n particular I have a book for every dragon that records their life, by reading these books, I can know just about everything that's ever happened since the first Chronicler, everything that's happening now, and I have several gifts, one of which is to know some things that have yet to pass."

"And why is this important?" Perrin asked.

"Just like Flame and the others are guardians of their respective element, region, and the eggs, I'm a guardian over the entire world during that age as well as time itsself. I'm not allowed to leave the temple, but in very special circumstances, I can intervene, using my knowledge to help others solve the problems at hand. Look at Ignitus, without his help we never would have gotten to anti-space, and everything would be gone now."

"Speaking of that," Perrin said. "I thought you said the Temple of Time was gone."

"It was, but I guess when Ôumí Jiâ was defeated, everything went back to where it should have been."

"And what about you?" Perrin asked. "How long are you gonna do this?"

"Oh, longer than you can comprehend." James said. "but don't' worry, when it's time to pass my role on to the next Chronicler, I'll be able to move on and finally hold you again. How have you two been doing in this time?"

"We've been ok." Perrin said. "But I wish you could come back."

"Sorry." James said. "But you can't reverse death. I may still exist in this world, but the fact remains that I no longer live. I only have until the aurora is over, which isn't long. So I must part with telling you both how much I love you. During my ages in the Temple, I'll never forget either of you."

Perrin put Laura down who went to play around with the light that made up James's body. Perrin stood up and walked to him. "Will I ever see you again? In this life I mean?"

James paused a moment to think. "Perhaps, look for auroras, maybe one day you'll be looking at the right one."

"Perrin nodded, a single tear sliding down her face. "I'll miss you." And though she couldn't touch him, she leaned and kissed where his lips would have been had he been there.

"I'll miss you too. But I have to leave, I don't have much time left and I need to do one more thing before the aurora ends. Goodbye my love."

And then his body brightened until it was once again a large white orb, which flew into the air, gently trailing light as it went.

For a long time, Perrin stood there, staring at the night sky, until Laura tugged her shirt, causing her to look down.

"Mommy, it's cold, can we go inside?"

Perrin smiled. Having some form of closure. "Sure honey. Lets go." So they turned and went inside, closing the door.

That same night, Ryan and Selena were on the couch, playing DotD in the 360. It was Selenas favorite game, it showed her parents past and she found it infinitely intriguing that some human had somehow known so much of her world without even knowing it was real. Kenji had also come to visit and was making something to eat. The group that had come back from the dragon realms had formed the tight bond of brothers at arms, as well as than of a shared secret.

They heard a knock at the door and head Kenji say "I got it!" A moment later, he said "Selena, it's for you."

Selena got up and with Ryan following came across an odd sight.

There was a couple at the door, one had a yellow shirt and an orange belt that hung below his pocket on one side, his hair and eyes were purple.

The woman had smooth chocolate skin with straight black hair and right green eyes, uncommon for a person of her complexion. She wore white Capris and a dark red blouse.

"Can I help you?" Selena asked.

"Ha! They don't recognize you!" A voice said. "Although with as silly as you two look I'm not surprised." There was a yellow streak and a dragonfly was hovering a few inches from Selenas face, "Ew, you're gotten weird looking too"

Selena swatted him away saying "Sparx? If that's you then…" She looked at the two again. "No way…"

Spyro smiled. "Nice to see you again Selena."

"No way! Mom! Dad!" She ran forward to hug them, which they returned.

Meanwhile, Ryan and Kenji stared at the two in complete surprise.

Selena broke the hug and said "What are you guys doing here?"

"We're here to take you home honey." Cynder said.

Kenji nodded. "Ok, where's the portal?"

Spyro looked at him "Well we…. Uhh…"

Cynder looked to him "What? We- oh… Umm… Selena?"

"What?" Selena asked.

"We umm, made a bit of an oversight. Do you think you have room for two more?"

Kenji facepalmed. "Ugh, you two came here with no way of getting back?"

"WHAT?" Sparx yelled zooming to hover in front of Spyro. "You mean you dragged me here, away from my family, with NO WAY of getting home? We're stuck here? FOREVER?" Spyro grinned sheepishly. "Oops?"

"Oops? Oops doesn't begin to cover it!" Sparx then floated off, ranting and cursing.

Once Sparx had drifted out of sight, they turned to face each other. "So umm, Mom, Dad, wanna come in?"

A few hours had passed. Spyro and Cynder had become transfixed with the Spyro games, they spent their time divided between figuring out how someone knew so much about them, and the other time was spent with Cynder laughing at how many times her virtual evil self kept killing Spyro, who wasn't used to thumbs yet.

A few hours after their arrival, Sparx flew down the chimney. "Guys! Come outside quick! There's some weird light show going on!"

A moment later they were outside as they saw a large orb of light descend from the sky to land on the grass. It seeped tendrils of light.

"What is it?" Kenji asked.

Suddenly, it flashed and half the tendrils turned pitch black. Then all the tendrils, white and black shot out and converged, the hundreds of shards of light and shadow forming a white disk than had a never ending series of black rings growing from the center until they vanished at the disk's edges.

"That… that looks like James's portals." Selena said.

Then they heard a voice in their heads. _**It's good to see you again, this will take you home, those who will go, go those who will stay, stay. I can only keep this up for thirty seconds. Choose quickly.**_

"It is! It's James!" Kenji said.

"Thirty seconds!" Spyro said quickly, turning back to Selena. "You coming?"

Selena turned to Ryan. "Well?"

"Where you go, I go my stellar beauty."

Selena blushed. Then turned to Kenji, who shook his head. "Not this time. But I think I'll have another chance later. Just go."

With no more time to think on it, Spyro, Cynder, Sparx, Selena and Ryan jumped through the portal just as it closed, leaving a dark, empty street except for one teenager with an odd key shaped sword.

Deep in the darkness, a man in a black cloak smiled as Kenji stayed behind before melting into the shadows.

One year later…

Everyone was gathered at the great hall of Warfang, The Cheetahs were the most plentiful, among them were Hunter, Chief Prowlus, and even the hermit had come out of seclusion for this event. Many dragons were also there, the guardians of the Avalar temple along with several dragons that had known Spyro and Cynder as well as their family over the years. Many moles were there including the city counsel. A few dragonflies had even made the long journey from the swamp, including Sparx, Shimmer and Lumi, now twelve were there. Even more uncommon, several members of the Atlawa and Manweersmall had made the long trek to the mainland. They had missed an event such as this before, and they weren't about to repeat the mistake.

Fever was standing at the front of the hall with his best friend and uncle, Sei next to him. Fever wore crimson leg armor on the front and back, a sheet of crimson plate mail going from his neck down his back and a crimson helm that only covered the back half of his head. The armor itself was very simple, but refined with elegant lines.

Just then, the doors at the back of the hall opened and Spyder stood there, she wore armor that mimicked Spyro but was a pale gold with complex and elegant patterns etched across the surface, the main difference was that she also wore a white veil. She walked up the center aisle, conscious of everyone watching her as she made it to her place opposite Fever.

Kwaik stood between the two. Glad they had chosen him to do this honor. Then he spoke.

"We are all gathered here today to witness an uncommon event. The joining of two dragons on marriage. Who offers this dragoness in marriage?

Spyro stepped forward, moving his tail unnecessarily to show off Selenas newest magical achievement, an steel tail that mimicked the movements his old tail would normally make. "I, Spyro offer her in marriage."

Kwaik nodded and turned to Fever. "What do you have to offer Spyder in this marriage?"

Fever looked to Spyder. "A secure home, a swift hunter, a lifetime of happiness, and an undying love"

Kwaik nodded. "If anyone here sees any reason why these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace."

The temple was silent.

"Fever. Do you take Spyder to be your wife, to love and cherish her, to care for her in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or worse, till death do you part?"

Fever had never been so sure of anything in his entire life. "I do."

"And Spyder, do you take Fever to be your husband, to love and cherish him, to care for him in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or worse, till death do you part?"

Spyder looked at Fever, smiling and tears rolling down her face. "I do."

Then I now pronounce you husband and wife. He turned to Fever, "You may kiss the bride."

Fever leant in and shared a kiss that he could not possibly compare to anything he had experienced before. They broke the kiss, turned to see everyone cheering for them, and walked down the aisle together, left the hall, and took off into the sky for a well deserved honeymoon.

On the ground, Selena and Ryan watched them leave, then turned to each other.

Selena smiled. "We're next."

Ryan nodded. "Tommorow." Then they kissed deeply and turned to watch the sun sink below the horizon.

The End


End file.
